Storm
by DFaraday
Summary: *Really, it's actually updated!* Daniel/Charlotte fluff. So, Charlotte lived through This Place Is Death. What comes next for her and Daniel? How will her surviving change things? AU, disregards some canon background stuff from 5x05 onwards.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Storm  
**Fandom:** LOST (AU)  
**Characters:** Daniel, Charlotte  
**Pairing(s):** Daniel/Charlotte  
**Prompt:** #65 Passing (for varietypack100)  
**Rating:** PG    
**Word Count:** 320  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine.  
**Summary:**_ "The Storm is raging over them, threatening to take everything away from him."_

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"Charlotte…Charlotte, stay with me!" Daniel begged, and her bloodshot, tearful eyes, focused on his face, a small scared smile crossing her lips. He took her hand in his and she squeezed his fingers, her eyes closing and a few more tears sliding down her cheeks. Daniel's breathing became more ragged as he grew even more desperate, frantically searching his brain for some hint of what he should do.

To his horror, he suddenly heard the familiar whirring sound, and the startling white light started building over the skyline. Like a storm raging over them, one he knew would end everything between them he'd been hoping for since he met her on the freighter. He gripped her hand tighter as her face creased in terrified anticipation.

Before the drilling pain in his head could start, however, the light disappeared and the noise stopped. He opened his eyes, and found hers staring back at him, her expression one of complete surprise. A smile tugged at his lips and he reached out and puts a hand on her cheek, moving it up to her forehead and pushing her hair out of her eyes; she was still here, and he couldn't quite believe it. She pushed herself up on her elbows, her eyes filled with confusion.

"It's gone. My headache, it's gone," she said simply, a disbelieving smile stretching across her face as she sat up properly, reaching up to touch her nose. "And my nose: it's not bleeding anymore." she looked at him, eyes shining hopefully as she let out a shaky laugh. "Has it stopped? The light, it stopped. Is it over?"

"I… I don't know." he told her honestly, "It might be that, if we have indeed stopped moving, then—" he was cut off by Charlotte pressing her lips against his, winding her arms around his neck, and he couldn't say that he minded not being able to finish his sentence.

The storm was fading, passing, and they'd made it.

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_Reviews are love. :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_Originally, Storm was meant to be a one shot, but after all of the reviews I got, and the lack of any Dan or Charlotte air time on Lost recently, I'm afraid I couldn't resist continuing this. :)_

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Charlotte broke the kiss, panting heavily as she sat back, one hand still on the back of Daniel's neck. He put his hand on her cheek, his fingers grazing gently over her skin.

"Did you mean it, Dan?" she asked him, and he frowned a little, not understanding what she was asking.

"Mean what, Charlotte?" she shuffled a little closer to him, her other hand joining the first on his neck.

"What you said to that guy, Alpert, earlier. When he asked you why you weren't going to blow the whole Island up. You told him that you loved me. Did you mean it, Dan, or did you just say it because you thought that I was going to die?" She kept her eyes fixed on his, biting her lip.

"Charlotte," he said softly, the pad of his thumb running over her cheek. "I am in love with you." She smiled, pressing her lips against him for a second before she replied.

"I love you too, Daniel." She laughed a little, quietly, resting her forehead against his. "I think I have for a while – apparently it just took nearly dying to realize it," She tightened her grip around his neck. "But I do. I love you." He closed the gap between them, kissing her passionately. Charlotte responded immediately, shifting so that her whole body was pressed against his. One of his arms was wrapped tightly around her back, the other curled into her hair, holding her close. She relished their intimacy, still hardly able to believe that she was alive.

When they broke apart, she leant her head against his shoulder as his hand shifted down from her hair to circle her back.

"Thanks…for staying with me, Dan. You didn't have to." Daniel kissed her hair gently.

"Of course I stayed, Charlotte. I'll always stay." She grinned, kissing him again, wondering how she'd ever gone without this between them before.

Charlotte eventually broke the kiss when she heard movements in the trees nearby, and voices that were too far away to understand, but sounded familiar.

"I guess that'll be the others back, then." She said. Daniel nodded and stood up, offering Charlotte a hand to help her to her feet. She took it, getting up but not letting go of his hand. She looked around her and then looked down at the ground for a moment, before laughing quietly. She saw Dan's questioning look, and quickly explained herself. "It's just nice to be able to stand up without feeling like my head's about to explode." He squeezed her hand, but before he could reply Juliet, Sawyer and Miles came into view through the trees. Charlotte frowned. "Where's Locke?" Juliet flashed them a tired smile.

"We think he managed to move the Island again, and stop the flashes." She turned to Daniel, "What do you think, Daniel?"

"I guess that sounds about right. The flashes definitely seem to have stopped…I can't think of any reason they would have apart from John managing to move the Island." Juliet nodded, turning her gaze back to Charlotte.

"Are you alright now, Charlotte?"

"Fine." Charlotte said, smiling, "I think the flashes stopped just in time." Juliet opened her mouth to speak, but Sawyer got in first.

"Thanks for the tip about the well, Red. You wanna tell us how you knew about it?" He said, taking a few steps towards them.

"The well? I don't remember saying anything about a well." Charlotte said, her brow furrowed, puzzled by his words. Sawyer raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, sorry about that. Must've just been my imagination, only as I recall, you were lying on the ground, talkin' some bullshit about your Mommy and Daddy, and then you told us to look for the well. Seems to me like the only way you could've known about that was if you've been here before. So spill!"

"Look, I don't remember any of that!" Charlotte turned to Dan, looking confused. "Dan, why don't I remember this?"

"Your mind was skipping, Charlotte. You must have gone back to when you were small, so you weren't really…here, exactly, when you said that. That would explain why you don't remember."

"What about answering the goddamn question, Red. How'd you know about the well?" Sawyer said loudly.

"I was born on this Island. I lived here, with the Dharma Initiative, until I was four or five. Then I left with my mum, and went to England. That's why I came out on the freighter; I was looking for the Island." Charlotte said, running a hand through her hair, her voice tired. "That's how I knew about the well. Or, I used to now about the well – I don't have a clue what you're on about right now." Sawyer studied her for a minute before saying anything, and Charlotte crossed her arms, expecting Sawyer to put up some sort of fight. She was surprised after a moment when Sawyer gave a half shrug.

"Well, what d'you know? You learn something new everyday. Now, I say we head back to the beach. When Locke gets back with everybody, that's where they'll be looking for us."

"The beach? What, you didn't get enough flaming arrows shot at you?" Miles said indignantly. "And your camp is gone. Why bother?" Sawyer glared at him, and was about to retort when Juliet cut in.

"Sawyer's right, Miles. We should go back to the beach. We've survived there before, we can do it again." Sawyer looked at Juliet in surprise, and Miles started rambling, almost to himself.

"Maybe when we get there, you'll want to go back to the Orchid again. And then, when that gets boring, we can head back to the beach. It's the only two plans you people have."

"Hey, zip it!" Sawyer said angrily. "I'm heading back to the beach. If our stuff's there, great. If it's not, we build new stuff. You don't like the plan, good luck." He walked off into the jungle without another word.

"Who put him in charge?" Miles said to Juliet, but she just turned and followed Sawyer into the jungle. Miles muttered something under his breath before following them, catching up and darting in front of them silently. Daniel turned to Charlotte.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I thought Sawyer would make a bigger deal of that than he did, but I'm glad it's out in the open now." She gestured after the other three, who were now a considerable distance in front of them now, almost out of sight. "Shall we catch up?" Daniel nodded, and Charlotte grinned at him when he took her hand again, and they followed the others in a comfortable silence.

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_Reviews are love. :) Also, I'd love to get a show of hands to see if anyone would be interested in another couple of chapters of this fic? Let me know, I'd love to keep writing it._


	3. Chapter 3

_Omg…reviews guys. They were amazing, I can't thank everyone enough. Hope you enjoy this chapter as much!_

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When they were about halfway to the beach, they overheard gunshots coming from nearby and halted in their tracks. Sawyer raised his gun and pushed through the foliage towards the gunshots, Juliet hot on his trail with her own rifle secure in her hands.

"What's going on?" Charlotte said, not to anyone in particular. Daniel just gripped her hand tighter, a worried expression on his face as he followed Miles through the jungle. The gunshots had ceased, but the silence was filled with a woman's terrified crying, occasionally interrupted by a moan of 'No, no…!". As they reached a clearing, Sawyer, up in front, stopped and they could see two men standing with the sobbing woman, both of them with their guns trained on her.

"Please! No, no! Do something!" She screamed between sobs, and Daniel sucked in his breath when he saw the body of a man lying on the ground near the woman, edging himself in front of Charlotte almost unconsciously.

"Is he dead?" Charlotte whispered to him.

"I think so." He replied.

"Dan?" Miles hissed, "That's what you said, isn't it? That we can't get involved."

"It doesn't matter anymore." Dan said, talking to Sawyer, Juliet and Jin as well. "Now that the flashes have stopped…what happened, happened. Whatever we do won't change that."

"Well great then." Sawyer commented, grabbing his gun up and striding out towards the group, Juliet following after a second. The four left watched from afar as Sawyer and Juliet expertly took the two men out before going to join them, just as Sawyer pulled the bag off the woman's head. Charlotte crouched down by the man sprawled out on the picnic mat, checking his wrists to confirm their suspicions.

"He's dead." She said quietly, not wanting to distress the woman any further. She was only a few feet away from them, and once she realized that they weren't going to hurt her, she dropped to the ground on her knees, reaching out to touch the man's face.

"Paul? Paul…" She choked out between sobs. "Oh, Paul!" She glanced round at the others. "We were only having a picnic…we didn't want to do anything to anyone…we didn't mean to…" She trailed off, sobbing as she stroked the man's hair, her eyes fixed on his blank ones.

"Alright," Sawyer said quietly to the rest of them, "Juliet, Red, you clear this stuff up," he said, gesturing to the remains of the picnic, "Genghis, Jin, you keep a look-out," he handed Miles his rifle and Juliet gave Jin hers, and Sawyer turned to Daniel, "You check that guy." He pointed to the man with a beard ten feet away. "Check if he's dead, then see if he had anythin' on him that'll tell us who he is." Dan nodded, checking the man wrist: nothing. He checked the man's pockets, which were empty, and stood up. Sawyer looked over to him.

"Anythin?" He asked.

"No: he had nothing with him."

"Damn it!" Sawyer hissed, standing up. "This one's the same. We don't have a clue who they are."

"They're Hostiles." The woman on the ground said. Juliet caught Sawyer's eye.

"Others." She explained. Charlotte stood up.

"He's wearing a Dharma jumpsuit." She said quietly so that the woman couldn't hear, "They weren't here until the '70s."

"And they were gone by the '90s." Juliet added in an equally quiet voice.

"Sawyer! Walkie!" Jin said, grabbing their attention as he waved a walkie at them that he'd found on the ground. He chucked it to Sawyer, who caught it and studied it carefully. He fiddled with the dials, obviously frustrated when he only managed to produce static hisses.

"We need to go." Juliet said. They all looked at the woman and exchanged glances; none of them wanted to have to be the one to drag her away from the man on the ground.

"I'm on it." Sawyer said after a moment, approaching her and kneeling down to talk to her. "Listen, Sweetheart, we gotta get movin' now." He said gently. She looked up at him, her expression unreadable.

"Who are you people?" She asked him, as though she hadn't heard what he'd said. Sawyer sighed quietly and shut his eyes for a moment before replying.

"Our ship wrecked on the way to Tahiti, but that ain't important right now, 'cause whoever's on the other end of this walkie…those two might've given 'em a call before we saved you." The woman didn't seem to take in what he'd said, just stroking the man's cheek, more tears rolling down her face.

"We have to bury them." Sawyer blinked, surprised.

"Bury them? We ain't got time to bury nobody. The woman ran a hand over her face.

"We – we have to. The truce. Oh, God!" She looked panicked. "We have to bury them." She gestured to the two men Juliet and Sawyer had shot earlier. "And we have—" He voice started shaking, "We have – we have to bring him home. We have to bring Paul home. Please. Please?" She whispered, breaking into more sobs. Jin stepped forward, looking at her kindly.

"I will carry him." He said.

"Alright," Sawyer said, relenting, "We'll put these guys in the ground and carry your friend back, but we better do it fast." The woman gave him a tiny smile.

"He wasn't my friend. He was my husband."

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As the woman lead the way back to her people, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles walked together, talking in hushed tones, leaving Daniel and Charlotte to bring up the rear.

"What are we going to say when we get there? I'm not sure they're going to buy that we've time traveled from 2005." Charlotte said.

"I guess we stick with Sawyer's story that our boat was shipwrecked here."

"And if they ask us anything else? They're not going to just welcome us with open arms without asking us any questions." She looked at Daniel worriedly. "If we can't get our story right they're going to kill us, Dan. You saw what happened back there." Daniel stopped walking, turning to face her.

"It'll all be fine, Charlotte. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."

"Okay," She said, hugging him, "I'm just worried, that's all. I may not remember much about being her all those years ago, but I remember how scary things could get between the Dharma and the Hostiles. And I'd say the fact that we just killed two Hostiles isn't going to do us any favours." He held her to him tightly.

"If they ask us anything, we just let Sawyer do the talking." He kissed her forehead, "I'll protect you, Charlotte. I love you." She tipped her head back slightly to kiss him properly.

"I love you too. Now come on, we'd better get walking again before we get completely left behind." They caught up with the others in time to hear Juliet shout at Miles.

"Miles, stop!" She screamed, throwing her arms out. Miles had obviously grown tired of their conversation, walking out in front of the entire group. He stopped dead, looking at a huge pole near him. Juliet walked forward to face the woman (who still hadn't told them her name) with a stern expression on her face.

"Turn it off." She said. The woman's face stayed blank.

"Turn what off?"

"Whatever that is. It looks like some sort of sonic fence." The woman paused for a second before replying.

"Where did you say your boat was heading?"

"Listen, sister, we're the ones who just saved your life and hid those bodies. So how about you trust us and turn that damn thing off?" Sawyer said angrily.

"Okay. Okay, fine." She said, walking over to the pylon, kneeling down in front of a small control box. As she did, Sawyer and Juliet whispered between themselves, but no one else spoke.

"Okay, it's off." The woman said after a moment.

"You first." Sawyer said, gesturing in front of him. The woman walked forward, stopping about 20 feet past the pylons, turning back to them.

"See? It's fine." She said.

"All right, let's go." Sawyer lead the way forward, all six of them walking past the pylons. "And going forward, we should all do a better job of trustin'—" Sawyer was cut off as they all felt a searing pain in their heads, dropping to the ground. Charlotte desperately reached out for Dan's hand, grasping it tightly before she passed out into the darkness.

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_Please review! You have no idea how much quicker I write when I get a review; each one gives me a new burst of ideas. :)_


	4. Chapter 4

_AN: Sorry for the longer gap between the last chapter and this one. I nearly updated both on Wednesday and on Thursday, but this chapter ended up being way longer than expected, so it took me a little bit longer to write. Thank you all so much once again for the lovely reviews I received; they really, really do brighten up my day. Please keep reviewing, I love you all! A special shout out to all of the anonymous reviewers who I haven't been able to reply to – you guys are brilliant. And SatinChic, I totally agree with your 'rant' you left on chapter two, I totally agree about their lack of kisses on the show. :'(_

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Daniel woke up to find himself on a sofa, man sitting on a chair nearby watching him. He sat up quickly and the man leant forward a little.

"How's your head?" He asked calmly, and Dan raised his hand to his forehead, which was aching a little.

"It's fine." He replied, searching the room, disappointed to see that it was empty apart from himself and the man in the chair. The man must have realized what he was doing, and smiled, handing him a glass of water before he spoke.

"Don't worry; all of your friends are fine. We've just had to split you up for questioning. You'll see them all again very soon." He held out his hand, "I'm Phil. What's your name, friend?" Daniel hesitated for a moment before shaking his hand.

"Daniel." Phil smiled encouragingly again.

"Alright then, Daniel. How did you and your friends end up on our Island then?" Daniel took a sip of water before repeating Sawyer's cover story.

"Our ship got caught in a storm on the way to Tahiti. We washed up here…on the beach."

"Oh right, okay. So what were you going to Tahiti for?"

"You'll have to ask the boat captain."

"And who would that be?"

"He's with us. The blond man, with a southern accent. He's in charge. You want to go to him with you questions."

"So what about—"

"Ask the boat captain." Daniel said, surprising himself with the firmness of his answer, and he could see that Phil was surprised as well. It seemed to be a successful answer, though, because when it was the only reply Phil received to his questions, he eventually gave up and let Daniel go only five minutes later.

When Daniel got outside, he was relieved to see Charlotte sitting in a wooden patio chair outside the next house.

"Charlotte!" He called, and she stood up, a happy smile on her face when she saw him.

"Oh, Dan, thank goodness!" She said, wrapping her arms around his neck when he reached her, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Are you alright, Char?" He asked, stroking her hair.

"I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. What did they ask you?"

"They were just asking me my name and stuff. I told them my name but wouldn't say anything else. They let me go a couple of minutes ago; I think they got bored of me." She laughed a little, and Dan let out a relieved sigh.

"As long as the others stick to Sawyer's plan then we should be fine." He said, keeping his voice low in case any of the Dharma people were listening.

"They all should do; neither Miles or Juliet are stupid enough to answer any questions, and Jin doesn't speak enough English to really understand what they're saying – or that's how he acts, anyway." Charlotte replied. Dan ran a hand over her forehead.

"Are you sure your head's okay, Charlotte?" He asked, and she laughed him off.

"Yes, Dan, it's fine. It hurt for a minute when I first woke up, but really, it's alright now."

"Okay. Just…tell me if it hurts again, promise?" She kissed him gently,

"Promise."

"Charlotte! Daniel!" The two broke apart, turning around to see Jin approaching them.

"Are you alright, Jin?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, I am fine, thank you." He looked at Charlotte, switching to Korean.

"_What did they ask you?_" Daniel looked at Charlotte questioningly.

"He wants to know what they asked us." She translated for him before turning back to Jin. "_They were just asking how we got here and who we are. Did you answer any of their questions?_"

"_No._" Jin replied, and Charlotte gave a relieve smile, turning to Daniel.

"Three down, three to go. Jin didn't say anything either." Just as she finished speaking, the front door of the house opposite opened and Miles was pushed firmly outside.

"Little shit!" Someone inside the house muttered, before door was slammed shut.

"Charming." Miles said sarcastically as he sat down. Charlotte raised an eyebrow at him.

"Explain." She ordered simply, and Miles put his hands up in defense.

"What? They're just pissed because I wouldn't answer any of their stupid questions."

"…And?" Charlotte said expectantly, and Miles shrugged a little.

"And I might have offended them a bit while I was at it." He said reluctantly after a moment, and Charlotte nodded, not surprised in the slightest.

They waited in silence for a few minutes before Juliet finally joined them, looking round expectantly.

"Well? Did you say anything?" She asked them, and they all shook their heads. Juliet looked pleased

"Good. If James can just come up with a decent alibi for us then we should be fine."

"I don't know what's taking them so long to talk to him." Daniel said after a minute, "They finished questioning the rest of us ten minutes ago."

"If they think that he's our leader, then they'll ask him all of the questions that we wouldn't answer." Juliet replied, shrugging. Just then, two men walked past them, obviously in a hurry. One was clearly in charge of the other, leading the way to a house several doors down from where they were sitting.

"I'm sorry, Horace," one of them said, running slightly to keep up with his companion. "but this guy's their leader, so we thought that you'd be the best person to deal with him."

"Fine, fine." The man in charge said, sounding irritated as they went past them. Juliet turned her focus back to the others.

"I'd guess that's the guy going to see Sawyer then." She said, sitting back in her chair.

"Well, let's just hope that Blondie manages to make something up for us." Miles muttered, making Charlotte laugh a little.

"I'm sure Sawyer will be fine." Juliet said calmly. "He's good at this sort of thing." She gave them a knowing look. "Trust me."

The next ten minutes passed in an uncomfortable silence as they waited for Sawyer to come out.

"We're screwed." Miles said finally, sounding angry and worried. "He's probably trying to explain time travel by now!"

"Sawyer's gonna be fine." Juliet said, her gaze still fixed on a point behind Miles.

"What are you lookin' at?" He asked, twisting to look round.

"I lived here for over three years. That was my house over there." She said, gesturing to a house across the road.

"You were in the DHARMA Initiative?" He asked, surprised, and Juliet shook her head.

"No. The Others took over these Barracks and wiped out most of the people living in them. They brought me here on a sub a long time after that." She said, leaving the others a little lost for what to say.

"Well...welcome home." Miles said eventually.

"Daniel...no more flash?" Jin said, breaking the awkward moment.

"No. No more flash. The record is spinning again. We're just not on the song we wanna be on." He said, trying to describe it so that they would all understand what he was saying. Just then, the man they'd seen walking past earlier approached them, with Sawyer in tow.

"Hello. Somebody will be along shortly to show you to your rooms. In the meantime, Mr. LaFleur here can fill you in on the situation." He left, and the others all looked at Sawyer questioningly.

"Mr. LaFleur?" Miles asked mockingly, and Sawyer gave him a dirty look.

"It's Creole. Improvised." He said, waving Miles off.

"What happened in there?" Juliet asked, and Sawyer pushed his hair back.

"Well, he believed my story. But we're gettin' punted. The bastard's puttin' us on their sub tomorrow and shipping us off to Tahiti." He said, obviously irritated, leaving Miles confused.

"How's that bad news?" He asked, and Sawyer sighed, but was interrupted by the sound of an alarm blaring. Everyone around them flew into action, people running out of building everywhere, clasping flashlights and rifles.

"You guys, come on! Now!" A woman shouted at them when she saw them all standing in front of the house.

"Let's go! Get in! Get in! Get in! Move!"

"Let's go! Get out of here!" Another man shouted as he ran past. The man who'd questioned Daniel earlier ran over to them, ushering them all towards a house at the end of the road.

"Come on! Get inside! Move! Now!" He shouted, and Daniel grabbed Charlotte's hand instinctively, making sure they stayed together as they ran through the crowd of people sprinting through the street.

Juliet ran through the door first, closely followed by Sawyer, and Dan pulled Charlotte into the hallway.

"You okay?" He asked her, slightly breathless. She nodded, focused on the scene in the kitchen as Phil approached the woman in the kitchen, who was standing nervously near the window, a rifle clutched in her shaking hands.

"Heather, keep an eye on them." Phil told her before leaving again, just as the alarm stopped. The woman kept her undivided attention on looking out of the kitchen window, and Sawyer went into the living room and peered out cautiously. Juliet joined him, and Charlotte looked out over her shoulder.

"Dan," she said quietly, "it's that guy. Alpert." Dan joined her at the window, and saw that it was indeed Richard Alpert crossing the green towards the houses, not looking a day older than he had when they'd seen him in 1954. Juliet exhaled loudly, and Charlotte saw her make eye contact with Sawyer, giving him a small nod.

"Uh-oh." Sawyer breathed quietly.

No one spoke for the next few minutes as they watched Horace and Richard argue, unable to make out any words, but it was pretty obvious that they were both getting pretty heated about something.

"You know what? Gettin' on that sub is starting to sound like a great idea. What do you say? Sub anyone?" Miles said from his position by the other end of the window.

"Hold your horses, Banzai. No one's gettin' on a sub." Sawyer said crossly, stepping away from the window as he saw Horace approach the door.

"Okay, LaFleur, how well'd you bury those bodies?" He said, bursting through the door with Phil close behind him.

"Well, that depends on how hard he looks." Sawyer said, and Horace sighed loudly, turning to Phil.

"Call the Arrow. Tell them we're at Condition One. Take the heavy ordnance, and make sure the fence is at maximum."

"Yes, sir." Phil said quickly.

"Let me talk to him." Sawyer suggested, and Horace looked surprised.

"Excuse me?"

"Your buddy out there with the eyeliner - let me talk to him."

"We had a truce with these people. You don't understand."

"I understand I'm the one that killed his men, and I'm the one that's gonna go out there and tell him why I did it." Horace shook his head.

"I can't let you do that."

"Well, it's a good thing I ain't asking your permission." Sawyer said, walking towards the door only to be stopped by Juliet's hand on his arm.

"James, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Sawyer sighed.

"Not yet. But I'll figure somethin' out." He said, before leaving and closing the door behind him. Juliet put a hand on her forehead, turning back to the window.

'What exactly does that idiot think that he's going to be able to?" Miles said, quickly receiving a warning glare from Charlotte; the last thing that they needed was more conflict now. They all watched out the window as Sawyer approached Richard, surprised to see the two men sit down on a bench, their voiced apparently at a normal level; no one could hear anything they were saying. When Sawyer finally came back in, he and Horace went silently into the back room where the woman (whose name, it turned out, was Amy) was sitting with Paul's body, apparently unaware of the chaos going on.

"Is it over?" Miles asked, and Daniel shrugged, straining to try and catch some of the conversation. Only a few minutes later, Amy came out, looking tearful with something clutched tightly in her hand. Horace stepped aside to let Sawyer through, who was carrying Paul's body over his shoulder. When Sawyer had left to take Paul's body to Richard, Horace spoke to them.

"You can stay until the next sub in two weeks. There's an empty house across the street, and we'll sort more comfortable for you tomorrow morning. When Mr LaFleur comes back, I'll have Phil take you over."

When Sawyer came back, Phil lead them over to the house across the road, though Daniel saw Juliet slip off towards the dock when she thought that no one was looking. Phil left once they got into the hallway, shutting the door with a quiet 'goodnight'. Sawyer looked around, noticing the missing person.

"What happened to Juliet?"

"She left…just before we came in. I think she may have gone to the dock." Daniel said, and Sawyer sighed and left to track her down. Miles broke the silence.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to bed." He said, advancing up the stairs. "It's been far too long since I've been in a proper bed." Jin followed Miles, disappearing around the corner of the landing.

"Come on," Charlotte said tiredly, leading Daniel up the stairs by the hand, "I don't know about you, but I'm practically asleep on my feet. The sooner I can get to a bed, the better." Finding a small bedroom at the end of the corridor, Charlotte paused only to remove her boots at the door before climbing into bed, sighing contentedly. Daniel hesitated for a moment, and then removed his own shoes, sliding into bed next to her. She curled up next to him and he pulled her close, kissing her forehead.

"I love you." She said sleepily, resting her head against his shoulder with her arm draped over his stomach.

"I love you too, Char." He replied, letting his eyes close as the day finally caught up with him, falling asleep within minutes.

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_AN: Umm…yeah, sorry that so much of this chapter was dialogue from the episode 'LaFleur', and it was kind of lacking in Daniel/Charlotte content. From the next chapter on, I promise it's going to have way more romance between then, once we get into their time with Dharma. Also, am I going to lose any readers if this turns into a Daniel/Charlotte __and__ Sawyer/Juliet fic? I mean, it won't be centered on them…but they'll be __there__. Please let me know, because I really don't want to lose anybody who's reading just by adding a pairing that you guys don't want. :)_


	5. Chapter 5

_AN: Thank you guys all so much for the reviews! You all continue to make my day. Whilst this chapter is just complete Daniel/Charlotte fluff, I think I'm going to go ahead and throw some Sawyer/Juliet in the mix in later chapters. Also, in reply to Nyx, who in their review said 'three years of Charladay'…Hell YES. That's pretty much what you can expect in the rest of this fic - starting with this chapter. :)_

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When Daniel woke up, the room was still dark, Charlotte fast asleep in his arms. It took him a moment to get his bearings, smiling when he remembered what had happened between the two of them the day before. He couldn't resist placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, feeling a little guilty when she stirred against him, her eyes fluttering open.

"Sorry." He said apologetically, and she smiled sleepily at him.

"Quite alright. Not a bad way to be woken up, to be honest." He kissed her softly and she wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. When they broke apart, she spoke again. "Hmm…_definitely_ not a bad way to be woken up." He laughed lightly, kissing her again. "What time is it?" She asked him.

"I…don't know."

"Don't you have a watch?"

"It stopped working when the flashes started." Daniel looked over to the side of the bed, but it was too dark to see the clock on the table. He reached up above his head, finding a light switch.

"I've got to switch the light on." He warned, and Charlotte pressed her face against his neck in anticipation, moaning when bright light filled the room for a moment whilst Daniel checked the time, before returning to darkness. "It's five thirty." He said, surprised he'd woken so early.

"Our bodies must have just been thrown off by the flashes, that's all." Charlotte suggested, "But I'm sure I'll manage another couple of hours." She confirmed her words with a stifled yawn against his shoulder. She settled back down against his chest, and he closed his eyes again.

"I love you, Charlotte." He said after a moment of silence.

"I love you, too." She replied, already half asleep. Daniel stroked her hair as her breathing evened out, never having felt quite so lucky in his life.

--

When Daniel woke up again later that morning, there was enough light in the room to see the clock, which read quarter past nine. Charlotte had turned in his arms, her back pressed against his chest, his arms wound tightly around her waist. He kissed her neck before climbing out of bed, going downstairs and finding Juliet alone in the kitchen.

"You came back." He said, and she smiled, looking a little sad.

"James – Jim persuaded me to stay. For the two weeks." She shook her head a little as if trying to clear her head. "You okay?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I'm fine. Where is everyone?"

"Jin and Miles are still asleep, and Horace came by earlier, took Jim to show him round the place. They've said that we can go look round the Island a bit this afternoon, see if we can find any of our crew." Seeing Daniel's confused expression, she elaborated. "Jim told him that we were on a salvage vessel, to find an old lost ship: the Black Rock. He said that we were wandering around the Island to look for some of our crew that had gone missing." She gestured to a chair, and he sat down opposite her. "Horace came over earlier to ask Jim some more questions about things. He managed to come up with alibis for all of us, except for me: Jim was the boat captain, like we said, Jin and Miles were engineers on the boat, you were calculating the co-ordinates of the ship and Charlotte was translating for Jin."

"So…what was your alibi?" Juliet smiled sadly again.

"That I'm his wife." She said quietly. "It's the only reason he could come up with on the spot." She leant forward, resting her elbows on the table. "Listen, Daniel…when Horace was asking about the rest of us, whether we knew each other…Jim said that you and Charlotte were married. Is that going to be alright?" Daniel blinked, surprised.

"Umm…yeah, I guess it'll be fine…I'll take to Charlotte." Juliet looked relieved.

"Good. Horace also dropped over a bag of clothes for us all as well. Take it upstairs with you," she said, pointing to a large bag on the floor, "and when you and Charlotte have taken what you want, could you pass it on to Jin and Miles?"

"Sure." He replied, taking the bag and heading back upstairs. He grabbed some clothes before going into the bathroom, enjoying the first shower he'd had in far too long. Afterwards, he went back into their room, finding Charlotte still curled up asleep. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, touching her cheek lightly with his fingers. She screwed up her nose, blinking as she woke up.

"Hey." He said quietly, his fingertips still on her cheek. She stretched, sitting up.

"What time is it?" She asked him.

"A little after nine thirty." She nodded, yawning.

"God, I haven't slept that long in…well, since before we came here. Where were you?" She asked, taking in his change of clothes and wet hair.

"I was just talking to Juliet, and I took a shower. That guy, Horace, came by earlier, when we were still asleep. He's taken Sawyer—" He pauses, correcting himself, "_Jim_ on a tour of the place." Charlotte moved along the bed to give him some more room, sitting cross-legged on the covers.

"So what's Sawyer told this guy about everything?" She asked him, "We're going to have to learn all of this stuff he's said about us."

"Well, he said we were on a salvage vessel, looking for an old ship: the Black Rock, I think. He's said that he was our boat captain, I was locating the ship, Jin and Miles were the engineers and you were translating for Jin." Charlotte's brow furrowed.

"What about Juliet?"

"He told them that she's his wife." Charlotte's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Lucky girl," she said sarcastically, "married to Sawyer."

"That's another thing: we can't call him Sawyer anymore. It has to be 'Jim' now. Jim LaFleur." Charlotte nodded. "Jim, got it. Is that everything?" Daniel hesitated, leaning forward slightly and putting his hand on her arm.

"Charlotte, he – Jim – told them…that _we're_ married, as well. I don't know why he did it, I mean we both have alibis, there wasn't a reason to…If you want, I can go try and sort it out, I might be able to—" Charlotte kissed him fervently, cutting off his rambling. She put one arm around his neck, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling him towards her with the other. When they finally broke apart, breathing heavily, she kept her face close to his.

"I don't know – I think 'Charlotte Faraday' has a kind of ring to it, don't you?" She grinned, "And I've definitely got a better deal than Juliet. I can imagine a lot worse things than being married to you, Daniel." Her grin faltered slightly. "Unless…you don't like the idea of being married to me?" His response was to kiss her hard, his arms tight around her waist.

"I can't think of anything better."

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_AN: Please keep reviewing and brightening up my day. :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: Wow…you guys really liked the last chapter! :) Thank you to every single person who reviewed, and a particular thanks to anonymous, Nyx and Lauren, who I can't reply to through the system as none of you have accounts, but I just wanted to say thanks for your lovely reviews anyway! Umm, yeah, I hope you like this chapter as much as the last one. Just for clarity's sake, I'd like to point out that anything said in italics is in Korean (that stands for the whole fic)._

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Two nights before they were due to leave the Island on the sub, Charlotte expressed her fears to Daniel late at night once they were in bed.

"What if we actually have to get on the sub?" She asked quietly. "I know we've all been hoping that they'll ask us to stay, but it doesn't seem like they're actually going to suggest it, does it?" Daniel ran a hand wearily over his face.

"I – I don't know." He replied honestly after a moment. "Maybe they'll ask us tomorrow."

"And if they don't?" She snapped, rolling onto her back and letting the stress she'd built up worrying over the last few days out. "What happens if we have to back to the mainland, Daniel? We don't have any sort of ID, no way of leading any kind of life off this Island. I mean, if you tried to tell anyone your name off this Island, they'd look you up and find out that you've only just been bloody born!" She hissed, trying to keep her voice down in the quiet of the night. Daniel put his hand on her cheek, meeting her worried blue eyes with his calming brown ones.

"Hey. It's going to be alright, Charlotte. Even if we do have to leave, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. When we were in the jungle, just after we'd found Amy and Paul, I made you a promise that I'd protect you, remember? I don't intend on breaking my promise anytime soon. You don't need to worry." She dropped her eye line, letting him pull her closer to him.

"Okay." She said finally. "I'm sorry for getting so…worked up about it." He kissed the top of her head.

"It's fine, Char. I understand." She cocked an eyebrow at him, realizing something all of a sudden.

"Hey, since when have you been so calm, Dan? When we were back on the beach, you were nearly always worried about something or other." He shrugged.

"I guess the flashes just…put everything into perspective for me. I just realized that nothing was anywhere near as important to me as you are, I guess." At his words, she couldn't help but kiss him, pressing her lips against his briefly before replacing her head on his chest, finally falling asleep sometime later to the steady beat of his heart against her cheek, his words on loop in her head.

--

"I have a proposition for you." Horace said when he came round the next evening, "You see, we're a little short on numbers at the moment, an seeing as you folks seem to have gotten along so well with everyone here, we were wondering whether you might like to stay on with us for a bit longer. Of course, it's up to you – if you'd rather go home, the sub can have you in Tahiti by tomorrow evening." He stood up. "Think about it. The sub leaves at one o'clock tomorrow afternoon, so I'll come by at about eleven and you can all tell me your decisions." With that, Horace left, and Charlotte looked to her left, Daniel meeting her gaze with a triumphant smile.

"I do know what I'm talking about sometimes." He said to her quietly. In normal circumstances, she would have tried to come up with some sort of witty comeback, but at that moment all she could manage was a relieved laugh. Looking opposite her, she saw Juliet and Jim engaged in a quiet conversation, and she guessed that Jim was trying to persuade Juliet to stay.

"Charlotte?" Jin looked at her questioningly. "Translate, please?" She leant forward to speak to him.

"_Horace has offered to let us stay here and work with Dharma instead of going home on the sub tomorrow. Do you want to stay?_" Jin barely took a second to decide.

"Yes" He said in English, "I will stay." After a moment's silence, Miles spoke.

"Not that anyone seems to care, but I'm going to stick around here, too." Charlotte nodded slightly, distracted by Juliet and Jim, who were still bickering quietly. Jim seemed to be wearing her down, and a few minutes Jim pulled her into a relieved hug, whispering something in her ear. They broke apart quickly, apparently only then realizing that they were being watched.

"We're stayin'." Jim said bluntly, a dark look in his eye telling them that that was all that would be said on the subject.

"…Right. I'm going to bed." Miles said, getting up to leave.

"We all…stay?" Jin asked slowly, receiving nods from everyone. "Good." He said with a smile, before following Miles out of the room.

--

The next morning, Horace knocked on the door at five to eleven, greeted by Jim.

"Good morning, Mr. LaFleur." He said, taking a step into the hallway.

"Please, Horace, call me Jim." He replied, closing the door behind them and leading Horace into the kitchen where everyone was gathered, waiting for Horace's arrival.

"So what have you guys all decided?" Horace prompted, and the other five stayed silent, happy to let Jim take the lead.

"We're very grateful for the opportunity, Horace, and we'd really like to stay on her with your people." Horace smiled widely, clapping his hands together.

"That's exactly what I was hoping to hear! Now, I took the liberty of bringing over some overalls for you all, in case you decided to stay. Normally we have little tests to sort out where you should be working, but I like to think I've got to know all of you a little bit in the last two weeks, so I went ahead and put you into posts myself." He picked up a large bag that none of them had even noticed he'd brought in with him, pulling out six individual smaller bags. "Jim and Miles, I've put you in security. Daniel, Jim told me that you used to be a physicist – we'd really appreciate your help down at the arrow station." As he spoke, he handed each of them a bag, containing several sets of overalls. "Juliet, how do you feel about cars?" She gave him a bemused look.

"Cars? I'm not sure what exactly you mean—"

"Can you fix them?" Juliet smiled uneasily.

"Only the basics, I'm afraid."

"That'll be fine; there's nothing you need to do at the garage that you can't be taught." He turned to Charlotte and Jin. "Charlotte, we'd really like you to work down at the garage as well, but only a few hours a week. It would be really helpful if you could spend some time giving Jin a crash course in English; he won't be able to do any work here until he can speak it. Will that be alright?" Charlotte nodded, taking the bag he passed her.

"That's fine." She assured, quickly translating the conversation to Jin.

"Fantastic." Horace said, standing up. "Now, we've also managed to sort out this housing arrangement for you all. Jim and Juliet, you can stay here, Daniel and Charlotte, you can move into the house across the road, and there are two more houses down the road if you and Jin would like to take them, Miles." He gestured to the door. "Now, let me show you to your new homes."

--

"It's certainly going to be nice not having to share a bathroom between six people." Charlotte said appreciatively. "And it'll definitely be good to have some more privacy." She opened the wardrobe, surprised to see someone had filled it will what appeared to be new clothes. Daniel wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, pressing a kiss against the back of her neck.

"Good." He said, quietly, "When you're happy, I'm happy." She turned in his arms, putting her own around his neck, kissing him fiercely. After a few minutes, not breaking the kiss, she brought her hands down to the buttons on his shirt, fumbling to undo them. His fingers grasped the edge of her top hesitantly, waiting as if he was silently asking for permission. She abandoned his buttons, helping him pull her own top off before returning to yanking the shirt off him.

"Charlotte—" He started, but she silenced him with another kiss.

"Later, Dan…"

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_AN: Please, please keep up the amazing reviews and I'll keep updating! :)_


	7. Chapter 7

_AN: I keep being completely astounded by the amount of people who like this fic. I love all of you guys who review! Again, thanks to Nyx, anonymous and Lauren, who all reviewed but don't have accounts so I couldn't get back to you. Love to you guys! Just a tiny little plea to a few readers: quite a few of you have this story on alert but don't review (those of you who have it on alert __and__ review are wonderful!). If you have it on alert, please, if you have a spare moment, just leave a tiny review. Even just one word will make me grin like a madman. :) Anyway, enough random crap – on with the story!_

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"Jim!" Sawyer turned to look at the door, surprised to see Horace standing in the doorway. He took his glasses off and Horace came over and sat down next to him. "How's it going? You seem to have settled in pretty well here – the other guys in security have been singing your praises to me." Sawyer held his hands up in friendly protest.

"Hell, you don't need to flatter me so much, Horace. I'm jus' doin' what I'm told." He said, and Horace laughed. "So what are you doin' here, Boss?" He asked, and Horace dug into his pocket, pulling out a small box.

"I couldn't help but notice that you and Juliet weren't wearing wedding rings."

"Oh…yeah. We figured we must have lost them in the storm." Sawyer said vaguely, cursing himself for not having realized this problem.

"That's what I thought, so I got someone to pick you up some replacements from the mainland." He took out two plain gold wedding bands from the box, holding them out. "They're nothing fancy, but I thought you might light to be wearing them again." Sawyer took the rings from Horace's hand, rolling one between his thumb and forefinger.

"Thanks, Horace. That's…real kind of you." He tentatively slid one of the rings onto his finger, slipping the other one into his overall pocket.

"No problem, Jim. Now, I was meaning to talk to you…about Juliet." He took of his glasses, setting them aside and linking his fingers together, resting his chin on his fingertips. "You've been here for nearly a month now, and she's still so quiet. How's she settling in?" Sawyer sighed.

"She's doin' okay. She's missing home a little bit, but I think she'll be alright."

"And things between the two of you are okay?" Horace asked, leaning in conspiratorially. Sawyer raised an eyebrow at him.

"Everything's fine, thanks." He said, keeping his voice guarded. Horace seemed to detect the hostility in his words, and he chuckled and stood up.

"Alright, don't worry. I'm not going to pry anymore. I just like to make sure that everyone here at Dharma is staying happy." He suddenly reached into his pocket, producing an identical box. "Oh, I almost forgot. Could you pass these on to the Faradays? I noticed they were lacking wedding rings as well." He passed the box to Sawyer. "See you later, Jim"

- - -

Later that afternoon, Sawyer stopped by the garage at the end of his shift.

"Have you seen Juliet?" He asked a group of men gathered around a beaten looking van. One of them pointed silently over the other side of the garage, and when Sawyer turned to look he saw Juliet knelt down by a van, fixing a flat tire. He hurried over to her, calling out her name as he approached her. "Juliet!" He shouted. She stood up, looking surprised as she turned around and saw him coming. When he reached her, he put a hand on the back of her neck and kissed her forcefully, giving her a shock. However, she surprised him by kissing back, if only for a second before she pulled away.

"James, what are you doing?" She hissed indignantly, and he put an arm around her waist, pulling her close and speaking into her ear.

"Put your arms around my neck." After a second she complied, tentatively wrapping her arms around his neck.

"What's going on?" She whispered.

"Horace is noticin' that we're not exactly fitting the job description for a married couple. We need to act closer or they're all gonna realize that we're lyin' to them."

"Oh." With that she leant up and pressed her lips against his gently for a moment, an amused smile crossing her lips at his dumfounded expression. "You mean like that?" She said playfully. He reached into his pocket and produced the other ring, holding it up in front of her along with his own hand with his ring on.

"For you, Mrs LaFleur." He said, raising his eyebrows at. "Courtesy of our good friend Horace." She took the ring, sliding it onto her finger with a sad smile and a sigh.

"It's been a long time since I've worn one of these." She said quietly, leaving Sawyer puzzled.

"What? You were married?" Juliet looked around them pointedly.

"You really think that right now is the best moment for a trip down memory lane?" She said, and he sighed, frustrated, but let it go.

"Fine. Now, I have to go find Dr Wizard over at the Arrow; I've gotta drop off some rings for him and Red. But I'll tell you one thing – Horace is watching us a lot closer than we think."

- - -

"Danny Boy!" Sawyer shouted, walking over to where Daniel was working. "How's it going?"

"Oh…hi, Jim. Is something wrong?" Daniel asked politely, and Sawyer put a hand on his shoulder.

"Horace came by to see me this morning. He asked me to pass these on to you and your 'missus'." He passed Daniel the box, which he opened and took out one of the rings, surprised.

"Wedding rings? He _noticed_ that we weren't wearing wedding rings?"

"I know. I'd say Mr. Goodspeed there is keepin' a closer eye on us than we thought." Daniel nodded, slipping on his ring and pocketing the other. "So just make sure that you and Red keep playing the part of the married couple. Although," Sawyer smirked and raised an eyebrow at Daniel, "that shouldn't be too hard for you two." He put his glasses on and turned to leave, only stopped by Daniel, who put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Wait, Jim. I meant to ask you…why did you tell Horace that me and Charlotte were married in the first place?" Sawyer sighed.

"And here I was thinking that _you_ were the genius. If Red grew up here on the Island at some time around now, do you not think people might have found it weird if a grown woman turned up at the same time with the same name?" Realization dawned on Daniel's face.

"Oh." He thought for a second before continuing. "Well, hopefully they shouldn't cross over though, unless we're stuck here for a very long time. Charlotte won't be born here for another five years." Sawyer's smirk only increased.

"Still, I didn't hear any complaints from either of you about your new circumstances. I did you two a favour." Daniel flushed a little, but didn't reply. "Yeah, that's what I thought. See you later, Danny Boy."

- - -

When Charlotte came in that evening, she found Daniel sitting in the lounge, absorbed by one of his notebooks, a pen held tightly in his hand, poised over the paper.

"Hey," she said, going over and sitting down next to him, "What are you looking at?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. It doesn't matter." He said, putting the notebook down beside him. "How are you? How did things go with Jin today?" She smiled, kissing him lightly.

"Fine. He's learning it all really quickly, which is kind of annoying, to be honest. I'm going to have to find some way to draw out lessons out; I'm sure teaching Jin English is much better than being stuck in the garage all the time. Anyway, how was your day?"

"Jim came to see me a little while ago. He said that Horace had come to speak to him this morning and he gave him these to pass on to us." He pulled the gold ring out of his pocket, holding it out for her. "He obviously noticed that we weren't wearing wedding rings."

"Oh, wow." She said, taking the ring and looking at it for a second before she put in on her finger and admired her hand. She looked up at him, grinning, and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him.

"I definitely feel like Mrs. Faraday now."

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_Review and I'll love you forever. :)_


	8. Chapter 8

_AN: Guys, you're all AMAZING. You hear that? Amazing. I love each and every person who reviewed, so this chapter is dedicated to all of you who reviewed the last chapter: Shirebound, Charlotte Lewis, Dr Giggles, Nyx, jalice-and-karrett, Lauren, Ewyn, anonymous, GGRox07 and LittleMissBones. You're all stars. I'm so glad that so many people are enjoying what started as a tiny oneshot that I wrote in ten minutes in the aftermath of Charlotte's death. :)_

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Sadly for Charlotte, just over three weeks later Horace deemed Jin fluent enough in English to start working in security with Sawyer and Miles, which meant that she would start working full time in the garage with Juliet.

"It's going to be a nightmare." She moaned to Daniel the night before she was to start at the garage. "I don't have a clue how to fix anything to do with cars, let alone these old vans they use here." Daniel just chuckled, pressing a kiss against her forehead.

"It'll be fine. Juliet's been working there for over a month now, she can show you how everything works. Besides, Char, look at everything you've gone through – you've survived time flashes spanning who knows how many years – I can't imagine fixing a spare tire is going to be too difficult next to that." Charlotte sighed.

"I suppose you're right. I mean, how hard can it be?"

- - -

Very hard, apparently, Charlotte thought as she watched Juliet try and demonstrate to her how to fix one of the Dharma vans, her eyes wide as Juliet pointed to various parts inside the car's engine.

"Do you get it?" Juliet asked her, turning around to lean against the car.

"Erm…" Charlotte replied, and Juliet laughed, making Charlotte break out into a smile. "Not so much."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll pick it up as you go along, and there are plenty of people here, so even if you can't do something you can always find someone else to do it for you if you can make up the right excuse." Juliet told her, wiping the grease from her hands onto a towel she picked up off the side.

"Guess I'm going to be needing a lot of excuses then." Charlotte replied.

- - -

"Charlotte! Can you take a look at the engine on the van Phil just brought in?" A man called to her the next day, and Charlotte's eyes widened in horror as she realized she was actually going to have to try and fix a van by herself.

"Well, I, erm—" She started, but was interrupted by Juliet, who appeared from nowhere and grabbed her arm.

"I'm afraid I need to steal Charlotte from you actually, Rob." She said with a friendly smile, pulling Charlotte out of the garage.

"What's going on?" Charlotte asked Juliet, and she stopped, letting go of her arm.

"Jin thinks he's found something – or _someone_. Possibly a group of people, on the other side of the Island. He says that they're in the caves where the survivors lived for a while when they first crashed on the Island, so him and James think that it might be some of the people who got separated from us when the flashes started." Charlotte took a second to take it in, surprised.

"Woah. I thought that everyone else got caught by those bloody flaming arrows we got shot at us."

"Apparently not." Juliet replied. "Come on, I told James that I'd come back; he wants all of us there."

"Should I go and get Daniel?" Charlotte asked, and Juliet smiled, amused.

"Sure. Just come down to security, okay?"

"Fine."

- - -

When Charlotte went down to the Arrow, she found Daniel concentrating hard on working through a cramped page of equations in front of him. Charlotte approached him from behind, still completely unnoticed.

"I've never got how you can understand stuff like that." She said conversationally, smirking when she made him jump. He turned round, his face softening when he saw her.

"Oh, hey. What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" He said, standing up and putting a hand on her shoulder, a concerned look on his face.

"Jin thinks that he's found some of the people we lost contact with during the flash. Jim wants everyone to come to security to decide what do about it, so I came to find you." Daniel looked surprised, but allowed her to take him by the hand and lead him out of the station.

"Where are they?" He asked when they were about halfway to the security building.

"The people they've found?"

"Yeah, where did Jin find them?"

"Over in some caves by the beach. That's why Jim thinks it's people who were in the crash; some of the survivors lived in the caves for a while when they crashed." Daniel nodded.

"So what are we going to do?" Daniel asked after a moment, and Charlotte shrugged.

"Whatever Jim thinks we should do; he's done a pretty good job of sorting everything out for us so far."

- - -

When Charlotte and Daniel reached the security building, they found Juliet, Sawyer, Miles and Jin deep in discussion over what to do. When Sawyer saw them, he sighed, throwing his hands up.

"Finally!" Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Sorry." She muttered, although it didn't seem as though Sawyer really heard her; he was too busy keeping an eye on the television screens of the cameras all over the Island.

"Right, here's what we're gonna have to do: Jin, can you make sure that no one else finds them?" Jin nodded. "Good. Okay, tonight, when everyone's asleep, I'll go over to the caves in the van. If it's other survivors, then I can make sure they know our story, we can say that they're part of the crew. We make sure they know their alibis, and ours, and tomorrow, Jin can discover them, tell Horace and he can send people over to find them. That way, it won't look odd that we're the ones to find them, but they won't blow our cover." He turned to all of the others. "All you lot have got to do is make sure that you go along with whatever I have to make up, got it?"

- - -

The next day, just after twelve Horace came and found Juliet and Charlotte in the garage.

"I thought I should come and tell you that earlier this morning some of the security team picked up some of your crew from the other side of the Island." Charlotte had to stifle a laugh when she saw Juliet's face as she attempted to look surprised.

"Really?" Thankfully Horace seemed to fall for her poor acting skills, nodding.

"Yes. Their names are Bernard and Rose – Jim said that he was your communications guy?" Juliet smiled.

"Oh, well, thank goodness they're okay. Can we go and see them?"

"Yes, of course." Horace said obligingly, "I'm sure the rest of the guys here can manage without you for a while." Charlotte leaned in to talk to Juliet as they walked to the security building.

"You know what I can't believe? That I still haven't had to do anything in that garage yet."

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_AN: God, I'm sorry about this chapter. It was so full of crap, it's a complete filler chapter. I can promise some actual Daniel/Charlotte in the next chapter, I just wanted to put Rose and Bernard in there; I have an idea for them in later chapters, so they have a part to play in the fic – a small part, but a part none the less. Also, how would people feel if this fic went a bit more AU – I was wondering about making it so it would be five years before the Oceanic Six came back? Obviously, if everyone's dying to get them back on the Island then I'll leave it at three years, but my ideas for this fic would work better with five years, to be honest. Anyway, please keep up with the wonderful reviews! :)_


	9. Chapter 9

_AN: Wow guys, yet another set of amazing reviews! All of you who review are wonderful, and you all deserve a special mention. So thanks to: GGRox07, Nyx, LittleMissBones, , TrueGirl, anonymous, Ewyn, Shirebourn and BollyKnickers. I love you all. Also, in the last chapter I said it would be going more AU – I've always used AU to mean that a fic goes against canon, although (as far as I've always been told) it actually stands for Alternate Universe. Hope that clears it up! I'm happy to say that I now have most of this fic planned out in my head, so I'll try to update as often as possible – I'm out most of tomorrow so the next update will probably be on Tuesday, and after that I can hopefully keep up updating every other day. I'd just like to make another plea to those who have this story on alert but don't review – even just a few words in a review are amazing, so please take a second to leave a review. Thanks everyone, and enjoy this chapter!_

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One morning, when Charlotte arrived at the garage, she found Juliet looking forlornly into her coffee.

"What's wrong, Juliet?" She asked, getting her own coffee and sitting down next to her. Juliet looked up at her, smiling sadly.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Sure it is." Charlotte replied sarcastically. "Come on, Juliet. Did something happen last night?" The night before, Horace had invited all six of them over for dinner, along with Amy, to celebrate the one year they'd spent with the Dharma Initiative. Charlotte and Daniel had left early, bored of Miles' constant anecdotes, which made less and less sense as he drank more and more as the night wore on.

"After we left," Juliet said quietly, running a hand wearily over her face, "James and I, we…slept together."

"Wow." Charlotte said after a second. "I didn't expect that." Juliet laughed a little.

"I didn't either, to be honest. But it happened." Charlotte sipped her coffee, wondering how to approach it with Juliet.

"How much did the two of you drink?" She asked tentatively.

"That's the thing, neither of us had enough to blame it on that."

"So…what happened, then?"

"We were just talking, and James mentioned the whole thing about how we have to pretend we're married, then the next thing I knew we were kissing, and then…" She trailed off.

"Has he said anything to you?" Charlotte asked, and Juliet shook her head.

"I left while he was still asleep." She admitted.

"Why?"

"Because—" Juliet started before trailing off. "Because I didn't really want to talk to him about it."

"Well, what do you—"

"Hey! Can one of you two help Rob out with the van over there!" Someone called over to them. Juliet took pity on Charlotte, putting her coffee down and standing up.

"I'll be right over." She replied. Charlotte grabbed her arm.

"Don't think this conversation's finished." She said, only half joking. Juliet laughed anyway, nodding.

"I'll come back as soon as I'm done with the van." She promised.

Once Juliet had left, Charlotte sat back, relieved no one had asked her to do anything. She'd spent nearly a year working in the garage, and had not once managed to successfully fix a single thing.

"Taking a break?" Someone behind her asked, and she jumped, thinking she'd been caught in her attempt to keep away from any of the vans. When she turned around, she realized it was only Horace, grinning at her. "Calm down, Charlotte, I'm only teasing you. Mind if I sit?" He asked, gesturing to the empty chair Juliet had left.

"Go ahead." She replied.

"I meant to talk to you last night, but I couldn't catch you before you left." He told her, and she frowned, wondering what he wanted to talk to her about.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and he chuckled.

"Stop worrying! I'm not here to shout at you or anything." He said. "No, actually I'm here because I've been hearing from a few people that you're not exactly enjoying working here in the garage. Is that right?" Charlotte gave him an awkward smile.

"I'm not going to pretend that fixing vans is exactly my calling in life." She replied, and Horace laughed again.

"That's what I thought. Anyway, as you may have heard, the Harrisons left this morning on the sub, which has left us with a free position in Administration, so I was wondering if that would appeal to you any more than working here. I'm not going to lie to you – there isn't much going on most of the time, the only time there's a lot to do is when we have people coming on the sub – like now." Horace rested his chin on his hands. "So what do you think? You up for it?" Charlotte grinned, thankful she'd be getting out of the garage.

"Definitely."

- - -

By lunchtime, Charlotte still hadn't caught up with Juliet. She managed to find her replacing a flat tire on Jin's van, and went over.

"Hey, Jin, mind if I talk to Juliet for awhile?" She asked pointedly, and Jin seemed to get the message, leaving them alone.

"You want to tell me how you feel about last night, then?" She asked, and Juliet sighed, standing up and leaning against the van.

"I don't know." She said finally.

"Well, let's make it simple. Do you like him as a friend, or as more?" Juliet was silent for a minute before replying.

"More."

- - -

Two days later, Charlotte found herself much busier helping Amy sort out the new recruits that were coming in by sub in less than an hour. She definitely had to do more working here than in the garage, but she was definitely enjoying working here more. When it came to the new people arriving, she had to help sort them all out and get them their overalls. One of the last people she spoke to was a young man with dark hair, around her own age, she would guess.

"Sorry, what's you name?" She asked apologetically, shuffling through the stack of forms in front of her. "I've got completely lost in my papers, I'm afraid." The man smiled kindly.

"Michael Staples." He told her. "Mike." Charlotte's breath caught in her throat, looking at him for a moment.

"Right, right." She said quietly, finally finding his form. "And are you here alone?" She asked carefully.

"No, my wife is with me. Jeanette, she's over there." Charlotte closed her eyes briefly; her suspicion confirmed that the man in front of her was her father. "Are you alright?" He asked, and she opened her eyes quickly, giving him a small smile.

"Yes, sorry." She mumbled, filling out the rest of his form and handing him his overalls.

"Thanks." He said, getting up to join his wife. Charlotte watched them for a moment, taking a few shaky breaths before leaving everything on her desk and leaving.

- - -

When she got in the front door, Charlotte put her hands over her face, unable to comprehend that she'd just met the man who she hadn't seen since she was four years old.

"Charlotte?" Daniel called from the lounge, coming out into the hall. "Oh, hey, what's wrong?" He asked, coming over and putting a hand on her arm.

"I – I just met my Dad." She said, a few tears slipping down her cheeks. Daniel's eyes widened, and he was silent for a second before he pulled her in close, wrapping his arms around her as she let her head rest against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Char." He whispered, and that seemed to snap her resolve. She began to cry properly for the first time in a long time, sobs wracking her shoulders as Daniel held her tightly.

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_Please keep reading and reviewing! Next chapter: There's an accident down at the Arrow…_


	10. Chapter 10

_AN: Thanks for another bunch of lovely reviews! It was really nice to see some new faces amongst those of you who've been reviewing since the beginning – I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this fic so much! So thanks to: GGRox07, Nyx, TrueGirl, anonymous, Shirebound, BollyKnickers, Stargazer Sunrise, Jac Danvers, PaoHalliwell and anonymous. You're all lovely. :D_

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_I just thought I should put a little note in about Charlotte's dad's name. First off, I know that in episode 4x02, Confirmed Dead, Ben says that Charlotte's dad's name is David Lewis. See, after seeing 5x03, Jughead, I assumed (maybe incorrectly!) that David Lewis was not actually Charlotte's real father. So, the idea that I've followed in this fic is that David Lewis was Charlotte's step father – that's why I gave her father on the Island a different name. Also, I know that there is a split about what part of her name 'Staples' actually is. Again, I assumed that it could have been her real father's surname, as it was such an unusual choice for a middle name. Also, it would then make more sense that Ben knew it. Sorry if everyone disagrees with me about this – the idea of this fic was always just to provide some fluffy Daniel/Charlotte stuff. So also, sorry if the sciency stuff in this chapter doesn't make sense – I tried to research as much as possible but sorry if it's not right!_

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Juliet had put off going home until as late as possible every night since she and Sawyer had slept together, not wanting to face him after what had happened between them. Despite admitting to Charlotte her true feelings about him, she was still no closer to knowing what to do when it actually came to talking to him, so she'd decided that her best course of action would be to avoid him for as long as she possibly could.

When she arrived at their house that evening, she did her best to enter quietly, cursing her bad luck when the front door swung shut with a loud crash behind her.

"That you, Juliet?" Sawyer shouted from the living room, coming out into the hallway. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two of them, until Juliet gave in.

"I'm sorry I left this morning – well, I think I'm sorry, anyway, I just wasn't sure what to do, so I left." She said quickly, stumbling over her words. Sawyer raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well gosh, there I was wonderin' how to bring up last night, but you've just gone and done it for me right nicely, haven't you?" He said with a smile, which Juliet took as a good sign. "Now, you wanna tell me why you _really_ took off this morning?" He asked, stepping closer to her. Juliet sighed, not letting herself look at him.

"I just…I know that you still love her, James. I don't want to be second best." She said, and Sawyer put a hand on her neck, making her look at him.

"It's been a year, Juliet. A year with you, not a year with her. I promise, Juliet, she means nothing to me anymore. Hell, she could walk in this door right this minute and I wouldn't even care. The only person that matters to me right now is standing right in front of me." His speech surprised Juliet, and she blushed a little.

"I've never heard you say anything quite that…nice." She said, and he laughed.

"Guess you bring out the good in me." He said, leaning in and kissing her hard.

- - -

Charlotte checked her watch, trying to suppress the worry that was building up inside her. Daniel was usually home before her, but she'd been home for several hours now and Dan still wasn't back. Just as she got up, having decided to go down to the Arrow herself and find Dan, there was a knock on the door. Before, she'd assumed that Dan had just got caught up in something he was working on, but, considering that it was a rare occasion that anyone came to see them during the evening, the combination of a visitor and Daniel's absence made her heart sink. The person at the door knocked again, snapping Charlotte out of her reverie.

"I'm just coming!" She shouted, going to the door. When she opened it, she saw Horace standing at the door, looking grim.

"Hi, Charlotte. Can I come in?" He asked quietly.

"Has something happened?" She asked, still standing in the doorway. Horace looked pointedly past her into the hallway.

"Can we talk inside?" He asked again, and this time she stepped aside to let him, too desperate to know what was going on to try and argue with him. As soon as he got into the hallway she shut the door, turning to face him.

"What's going on, Horace?" She demanded.

"I'm afraid…there was an accident down at the Arrow this afternoon." His words hit her like a blow to the stomach.

"What happened?" She asked quietly, barely able to get the words out.

"We're not too sure at the moment – we think some of the guys were trying to do some sort of experiment and managed to create a radiation blast through the station."

"Is Daniel okay?" She whispered, and Horace gave her a small smile.

"I'm going to be honest with you, Charlotte, it's touch and go. He's still unconscious – I don't think he was actually involved with the experiment but he's got some nasty burns all the same." Charlotte put her hand over her mouth, completely shocked by Horace's words.

"Can I see him?" She said after a moment, and Horace nodded.

"Of course, I can take you down there to him now." He said, and Charlotte tried to smile, unsuccessfully. "I'm sure he'll be alright, Charlotte – we're all pulling for him, for everyone who was there." Horace said, trying to comfort her.

"What happened to everyone else there?" She asked. Horace sighed, obviously reluctant to answer her.

"Two of them died." He said finally. "But we think that they must have been the ones closest to the blast. Daniel and the other eight are all still unconscious, so it's the next few hours that are going to show us how they're doing. But I'll take you down the Infirmary now, and you can see him." Horace lead her out of the house and down the path to the Infirmary in silence. Charlotte's mind was reeling, unable to believe what was happening.

When they got in, Charlotte gasped when she saw Dan. He was in the right hand corner of the room, and she rushed over, not taking anything else in. Everyone working in the infirmary had their hands full, so to treat the burns they'd merely ripped the sleeves off his overalls, thick white bandages wrapped around his arms.

"Oh, Dan!" She whispered, putting her hand gently on his cheek, now sobbing uncontrollably, the reality of it hitting her as she saw his pale face. "Dan…"

* * *

_AN: Apparently once Sawyer and Juliet are happy Daniel and Charlotte can't be. :( Sorry it was short, it was a difficult chapter to write, but I'll try and make the next one longer. Keep reading to see what happens to Dan! Please review and I'll love you forever._


	11. Chapter 11

_AN: Firstly, let me just say something: __I'm sorry if this chapter isn't exactly medically or scientifically correct.__ I researched radiation sickness on the internet and tried to get at least the little tiny bit of information on that correct, but some of it is probably completely wrong – for example, I have no idea if you can determine whether someone is suffering from radiation sickness by running tests on a blood sample. But the general idea of this fic was to have some fluffy stuff between Daniel and Charlotte, and I have included some of that, so I'm sorry if I've let you down on some of the clever stuff! If anyone seriously has a problem with any of it and knows how I can correct it, please let me know in a review! Also, I promised to try and get you a longer chapter this time, so I proudly present to you the longest chapter of this fic so far!_

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_Yet again, thank you so, so much for the wonderful reviews! Thanks to: Stargazer Sunrise, Jac Danvers, Joy Fraser, GGRox07, TrueGirl, Nyx, Shirebourn, Franbunanza, Pao Halliwell, Lauren and BollyKnickers. You're all fantastic and I love you all to pieces! I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much! :)_

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"Mrs. Faraday?" Charlotte opened her eyes, seeing a blurry shape hovering in front of her. She blinked a few times until she realized that it was the Doctor who ran the infirmary. He smiled at her kindly. "We're just going to take a sample of your husband's blood, okay?" She nodded, unable to keep in a yawn, and the Doctor gave her a sympathetic look. "Why don't you go home for a little while, catch up on some sleep? You've been here for nearly twelve hours – you look exhausted. We'll send someone to get you if anything happens." He offered, but Charlotte shook her head and sat up. She was sitting in a chair next to Daniel's bed – they'd moved him late the night before into one of the separate rooms, separating all of the patients out once the initial panic of having nine people rushed into the infirmary at once was over.

"No, thank you. I'd like to stay here with Daniel, if that's alright with you." The Doctor nodded.

"Of course." He moved around to Daniel's other side, cleaning his arm to take the blood sample. "Could I just ask you a few questions while I'm here?"

"Sure."

"How much contact with radiation has your husband had, would you say, prior to this accident?" Charlotte gave a nervous laugh.

"Only about the same as every other guy working here." The Doctor nodded.

"Anything before you came here?" He asked, still focused on taking the blood sample from Daniel. Charlotte closed her eyes, thinking. She didn't know what to tell him – if she told him about the amounts of radiation Dan had been subject to in the years before they cam to the Island, then it could lead to so many other questions about his work. Then again, if she neglected to tell him about the radiation, what if it meant that he couldn't treat Dan properly?

"A few of his experiments that he did before we came here may have involved radiation." She said after a moment, deciding that Dan getting better was more important than any awkward questions that they might get asked. "Is that going to affect him?"

"I can't say for certain yet. We're going to run some tests, see if we can tell what damage the radiation's done and go from there." He told her. "Do you have any idea where you husband usually worked within the station?" He asked her.

"Umm…generally, I think he worked in one of the back rooms. Why?"

"Just trying to figure out how far from the blast he was." The doctor said, "It sounds like he was a good distance away." He smiled at her. "Well, I've got everything I need – I'll come back as soon as I can tell you the results of the tests."

"Thanks." Charlotte replied quietly, turning her attention back to the unconscious man in front of her. She reached out to touch Dan's arm, but drew back, afraid to only hurt his damaged skin further. The Doctor's questions about his radiation exposure had only worried her even more; she knew how dangerous radiation could be, and the fact that Dan had exposed himself to so much through his experiments during his time at Oxford could only increase the danger he was in.

"Come on, Dan." She whispered, "Don't leave me now."

- - -

"Charlotte?" Charlotte looked up to see Juliet standing awkwardly a few feet away from her.

"Oh, hi, Juliet." She said, turning back to Dan.

"Can I…?" Juliet asked hesitantly, gesturing to the chair next to Charlotte's.

"Go ahead." Charlotte said, giving her a tiny smile. Juliet sat down, her eyes widening when she saw that both of Daniel's arms were practically covered in bandages.

"Radiation burns?" She asked, and Charlotte nodded silently. "God. What happened down there?"

"No one knows – the guys who caused it died." Charlotte said shortly. "What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be working?" Juliet shrugged.

"No one's really cancelled work as such, but you can tell that no one's exactly putting their heart into anything today. Plus, they have half of the men down at the Arrow, all suited up and trying to clear the place out." She told her with a sad smile. "James included." Charlotte sat up.

"You never told me how thing turned out between you two. What happened?" She asked. Juliet looked startled.

"Charlotte, are you sure you want to talk about—" Charlotte cut her off.

"I'm sitting here, waiting to be told whether or not Daniel's going to die." She said evenly. "All I'm asking is that you distract me from that." Juliet was quiet for a moment.

"Well, we didn't actually talk about it until last night…"

- - -

Juliet left after about an hour, and Charlotte found herself overcome with worry about what the results of the Doctor's tests would show. Daniel had been unconscious for about twenty four hours now, and so far she hadn't seen any sort of change in him.

It was late in the afternoon before the Doctor came back with any news.

"Mrs Faraday? I have the results of your husband's tests." He said to her, closing the door behind him. Charlotte's breath caught in her throat.

"Yes?" The Doctor smiled gently.

"Your husband's a very lucky man. It seems that he wasn't close enough to the initial blast to receive any life threatening damage from the radiation – he tested negative for ARS." He told her. Her mouth opened slightly, shocked and utterly relieved by his words. He took her silence to mean that she didn't understand what he'd told her, and was quick to try and explain himself. "ARS stands for—"

"I know what Acute Radiation Syndrome is." She told him. "I just...can't believe that he's going to be okay."

"Well, other than his burns on his arms I'd say that he's going to be fine." The Doctor said. "Once he's woken up and as long as he's feeling okay, I'd say he's free to go home."

"Thank you." Charlotte said quietly. "What…happened to everyone else?" His smile faltered.

"Some of them are going to be okay. Three of them tested positive for ARS – we're going to have them taken back to the mainland via the sub once they're up to it, so that they can get the proper medical care they need."

"Oh my God." Charlotte said. "Those poor people."

"Like I said, your husband's a very lucky man." He smiled sadly. "I'll leave you to it."

Once he'd left, Charlotte put her head in her hands, letting out a relieved laugh. She reached out and touched Daniel's cheek gently, still taking in the fact that he was going to be alright.

"Thank you." She said, her voice shaky. "I definitely wasn't ready to lose you yet."

- - -

Now that she knew that Daniel was going to be okay, Charlotte decided that she could leave him for a couple of hours to go home and sort herself out. Once she was ready to leave to go back to the Infirmary it was late in the evening and dark outside, and she considered just staying at home and sleeping there. She didn't consider very long, though, knowing that she'd never sleep when she wasn't with Dan.

She'd been settled back down beside Daniel's bed for less than an hour when she saw his eyes slowly open.

"Dan?" She said, leaning forward and putting a hand on his chest, careful to avoid his bandaged arms. He looked over and his eyes focused on her.

"Char…" He tried to lift a hand to touch her arm, letting it drop back to his immediately. "Oh, erm...ow. What…?" He stumbled over his words, looking completely confused, and Charlotte laughed a little, tearfully.

"You were in accident, Dan. There was an explosion at the Arrow - someone's experiment went wrong and caused a radiation blast through the station. You're—" Her voice cracked as a few more tears slipped down her cheeks. "You're lucky to be alive." Before Daniel could reply, the door opened and the Doctor came in.

"Ah, I though I heard voices. Welcome back, Mr. Faraday. You had us worried there for a while. How are you feeling?" Daniel shifted to sit up a little.

"Fine, actually." He said, sounding surprised. The Doctor smiled encouragingly.

"Good, good. Well, your tests came back okay, so I'd say the best thing you can do is go home and get some sleep. Not just you – you're wife's been here with you for practically the whole time – I'm surprised she's still awake now." He said cheerfully, and Daniel looked at Charlotte, who blushed a little.

"Well, not the _whole_ time, I did go home for a while…" She replied, and the Doctor chuckled slightly.

"Of course. Now, as long as nothing comes up during the night, you don't need to come back here until tomorrow afternoon – I'd like to re-dress the bandages on your burns. Just be careful with your arms; you're not likely to do them any more damage, but it's going to hurt like hell if you bang them." The doctor smiled at the two of them. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow." He said, leaving them alone. Daniel looked at Charlotte.

"How long had it been since you've slept, Char?" She brushed him off.

"Oh, I'm fine. I caught a couple of hours over the day."

"How long have I been unconscious?" He asked. Charlotte considered the clock on the wall.

"Well, if the accident was some time yesterday afternoon, and it's now nearly half past eleven…about thirty hours?" She answered. "So I'm thinking that the last thing you want to do right now is sleep." He smiled.

"You'd be surprised – I'm actually quite tired." Charlotte stood up.

"Come on, then. Let's go home."

- - -

They made their way home slowly, Charlotte keeping her arm firmly wrapped around Dan's waist the entire time despite his constant assurance that he wasn't going to collapse. It wasn't until they got into bed that Charlotte realized how tired she actually was, and she lay down a safe distance away from Daniel in the hope that she wouldn't end up doing any damage to his already injured arms during the night.

"Charlotte?" Daniel said quietly, looking at her questioningly. She sighed.

"I don't want to hurt you." She explained, and he smiled gently.

"You're not going to hurt me. Come on." He lifted his arms up exaggeratedly, and after a second she gave in and curled up against him, putting her head on his chest. Despite his efforts to suppress the hiss of pain he let out as he wrapped his arms around her, she still looked up him apologetically.

"Sorry."

"Don't be, it's fine." He told her.

"Dan? I love you."

"I love you too."

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_AN: Again, to re-iterate: I'm sorry if this chapter isn't exactly medically or scientifically correct. Hopefully the fluffy stuff in it made up for it! Please keep up the amazing reviews - they all mean so much to me! Also I just wanted to get some opinions - I have two alternate plot lines in mind for this story - would you guys prefer the longer one or the shorter one? Let me know! :)_


	12. Chapter 12

_AN: Yay, some more amazing reviews! You guys are all wonderful: anonymous, BollyKnickers, Charlotte Lewis, GGRox07, Jac Danvers, Joy Fraser, Lindsey, Nyx, Pao Halliwell, Shirebourn, Stargazer Sunrise, and TrueGirl. Love to you guys. I'm so glad that you all liked the last chapter, and all of your incredible reviews made me want to update today! I just wanted to say as well that I am very aware that the writers of Lost have said that, although they said in early season 4 that Charlotte was born in 1979, the writers actually imagined that she was born in 1970 – I do know this, I'm just ignoring it. :) Just think of Charlotte as the age she would be if she was born in 1979, because it may come into the fic in later chapters that she was born in 1979 not 1970. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and enjoy this chapter! :)_

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The next morning, Charlotte woke up still in Daniel's arms, another wave of relief hitting her as she remembered that he was okay and safe next to her. She pushed herself up on her elbows and saw that he was awake, watching her with a smile. She grinned and leaned over, kissing him gently.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Dan. I was really worried about you." She told him between kisses. As their kiss intensified, Charlotte felt Daniel's hands wander up under her shirt and pulled away. "Dan, come on, I don't want you to hurt your arms." He kissed her again, one hand coming up to touch her cheek.

"You won't Char. It's only my arms, not my hands." He replied, and she laughed, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Not your hands, eh? You know, when you say something like that, I sometimes wonder what happened to the shy, introverted Daniel I meet back on that freighter." She teased.

"He met you." Daniel said, kissing her firmly and rolling them over. Charlotte laughed again.

"Well, I suppose…if you insist."

- - -

"So, Mr. Faraday, how are you feeling today?" The Doctor asked him, taking out some forms as Daniel sat down in the small back room.

"Fine, thank you." He said, and the Doctor smiled.

"Well, I'm glad. We actually only have four of the nine men who came in after the accident left here – the three who need to go to the mainland for their treatment, and one poor guy who escaped any radiation poisoning, but during the explosion he got a large shard of metal impaled in his abdomen, so we're going to have to operate on him sometime this week. He's going to most likely need a blood transfusion, so we're going to have to go round to everyone to see if we can get any blood donations." He told them as he unraveled the bandages on Dan's arms.

"I'll help. Give some blood, I mean." Charlotte said, and the Doctor looked at her gratefully.

"Are you sure? It'd really be a great help to us."

"Absolutely." She told him, and he left Daniel's bandages for a moment to turn towards the door.

"Jeff?" He called, and a younger man came to the door.

"Yes?"

"Could you take Mrs. Faraday and run a blood test for me?" He turned back to Charlotte. "We just need to do a test first; if you're not the same blood type as Mr. Hill then there will no point taking any blood from you. So we'll just take a small sample from you, run some tests later on today and then if you could come back here tomorrow then I can tell you whether we can use your blood or not." He said. He started to turn back to the other doctor, but looked back at her as though he had just had a thought. "Although…I don't suppose you know your blood type?"

"Umm…" Charlotte replied, and the Doctor waved a hand.

"It doesn't matter, most people don't. So, if you could just go with Jeff, so he can take a small blood sample, and you should be done about the same time as I finish doing your husband's bandages." Charlotte stood up, putting a hand on Daniel's shoulder briefly.

"See you in a minute." She told him with a smile as she followed the other man out of the door.

- - -

The next morning, Charlotte left Daniel at home to go in and help Amy with the sudden load of administration caused by the accident. Once news of the explosion at the Arrow had gone round a huge number of people were asking to leave the Island, especially families with children who were worried about another explosion or radiation blast. Despite Horace's best efforts to try and talk everyone into staying, a large number of people still wanted to leave, so Horace had reluctantly scheduled for the sub to come back to Island in less than two weeks. To try and counter the amount of people leaving, Amy was trying to organize some new recruits to come to the Island on the sub, but finding people to come out on short notice was proving a difficult task, and Charlotte was pleased to get away from the hectic atmosphere just after one o'clock to go down to the infirmary. When she got there, she found the Doctor sadly watching over the three men who were left there, having been moved into the main room so that they could be more easily monitored. When she came in, he turned to her.

"These are the three who'll be going back on that sub in two weeks. They tested positively for ASR; they were obviously a lot closer to the blast than your husband." He shook his head slight. "Now, anyway," he gestured to a door next to them. "Come through, we'll talk about your blood test." He lead her through the door, and she saw it was a small office. He sat down on one side of the desk, and after a moment she followed suit, sitting down opposite him. He picked up a few sheets of paper, looking at them for a second before addressing her.

"Now, Mrs. Faraday – may I call you Charlotte?" Charlotte smiled.

"Of course."

"Well, Charlotte, I have the results of your test here…"

- - -

As soon as she came in the door, Daniel came out into the hallway, obviously completely bored after spending half of the day sitting at home.

"Hey. How was your day?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder when she didn't reply immediately. "Charlotte? Is something wrong?" Charlotte blinked at him.

"Hmm? Sorry, I spaced out for a second. What did you say?" Daniel looked surprised, but repeated himself.

"I just asked how you day was. How was work?"

"Fine – busy, but fine."

"And what about the blood test thing? Did they take any of your blood to give the other guy."

"Oh, no." She replied.

"Weren't you the right blood type?" He asked, and was surprised when she drew away from him a little.

"Actually, I was. He just didn't want to take any of my blood." Daniel frowned.

"Why not?" She looked at him, biting her lip nervously.

"Because I'm pregnant."

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_AN: Well, hope you liked the chapter! I wasn't sure whether to put this in the story yet, but then, when I sat down to write this chapter, I put my iPod on, and you know what song came up? Knocked Up, by Kings of Leon. So I decided it was fate! :P Also, I'm sorry if everyone wanted a lengthy explanation about the accident at the Arrow - the truth is, I didn't really write it as a big plotline or anything, it was more just something to bring Dan and Charlotte together. Now, I said before I could either do a longer fic or a shorter – really, it'll be a longer fic with a few angsty chapters, or a shorter one that really is mainly fluff. It's up to you guys, I can write either. So, please keep reviewing everyone! :)_


	13. Chapter 13

_AN: Thank you all for the lovely, lovely reviews! **We made the 100 review mark** Yay!! anonymous, BollyKnickers, CharladayLove, Charlotte Lewis, DCLOVE, GGRox07, Jac Danvers, jalice-and-karrett, Lauren, LittleMissBones, Shirebourn, Stargazer Sunrise, TrueGirl and ----: You're all absolute angels, I love you all! Also, thanks to everyone about the response to my question about a long, angsty fic or a shorter, fluffy fic. In the end, I tried to write my longer, angsty fic, but when I was writing it…I decided that I just couldn't do it to them. It was too mean. So, in the end, I decided that I'm going to try and write a longer, fluffy fic. Hopefully that should please some of you! Erm…so, this chapter is really just complete fluff. Enjoy! :)_

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Charlotte bit the end of her thumb nervously as Daniel looked at her in shock for a moment.

"…Daniel?" She asked tentatively, and his eyes snapped back to hers.

"Umm…what?" He said eventually, and Charlotte gave him a tiny smile.

"I know. But the Doctor said…when he looked at my blood test…" She shifted her weight. "You don't seem…happy." She said finally, and it was this that finally got a reaction from him. He stepped forward, raising a hand to her cheek.

"Oh, no, Char…I'm just...I - I didn't expect this." Charlotte eyes narrowed, and he quickly carried on as she opened her mouth to reply. "But this is…oh my God. We're having a baby?" She laughed slightly, nodding.

"We're having a baby." She confirmed, and his smile grew as he pulled her in close.

"I can't believe it." He murmured, and she chuckled.

"Well, you'd better believe it, because it's happening, Dan." She replied, and he could hear the slight tone of worry in her words.

"It's going to be fine, Charlotte." She pushed herself up on tiptoes to kiss him gently.

"More than fine. It's...good – right?"

"Amazing." He agreed, before slowly moving his hand down from her cheek to tentatively place it on her stomach. She put her hand over his, linking their fingers and laughing tearfully. Daniel looked at her in confusion, using his other hand to carefully brush away the tears from her face. "Hey, what's wrong? I thought you were—"

"I am, I am." She said quickly, "I don't know, maybe I'm just being bloody emotional already." She kissed him again, winding one arm around his neck but leaving the other in between them, linked with his. When they broke apart she rested her forehead against his, closing her eyes.

"Charlotte…did you have any idea?" She shook her head.

"None – I guess it's too early to tell, so it was just coincidence that I had the blood test when I did." She told him. They were silent for a second before Daniel spoke, quietly.

"I – I can't believe how lucky I am. I came so close to losing you…but here I am, with you… and now we're going to have a baby…" Charlotte grinned, her eyes brimming with tears again. "I love you, Charlotte…so much."

"I love you, too, Daniel." She whispered, pressing her lips against his again, kissing him feverishly.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Charlotte reluctantly pulled away, quickly wiping her eyes. She turned to the door, before looking back at Daniel. "Dan? Don't say anything. Not yet." He smiled and nodded, still slightly not quite believing what was happening. Charlotte opened the door to find a red eyed Juliet waiting on the doorstep.

"Juliet? What's wrong?" Juliet sniffed, smiling apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt you—" She said, but Charlotte ushered her in, closing the door and turning back to Daniel.

"Dan? Can you go away for awhile?" She asked him, and he chuckled.

"I'll be upstairs if you want me." He told her, turning to the staircase.

"As for you…" Charlotte said, turning to Juliet. "I think that you need a drink." She led Juliet into the kitchen. "What do you want?" Juliet smiled ruefully.

"Anything with alcohol in it will do." She replied, and Charlotte laughed, pulling out a bottle of wine they'd had sitting on the side for ages; neither she nor Dan were particularly big drinkers.

"This do?" She asked, and Juliet nodded, smiling gratefully when Charlotte passed her a glass.

"Are you not having any?" She asked as Charlotte put the bottle away.

"Oh, no. I'm fine. So, come on. What happened that's got you in such a state?" She asked, sitting down at the table and gesturing for Juliet to do the same. Juliet sighed heavily.

"I'm probably completely overreacting…" She started, trailing off. "I probably shouldn't even have bothered you with it."

"Now come on. Don't tell me you came over here just to procrastinate. What's going on? Has something happened with Jim?" Charlotte asked gently.

"The last couple of nights…before I fell asleep, I heard him, whispering in his sleep. He kept saying her name." Juliet said quietly.

"Kate? He says Kate's name, in his sleep?" Charlotte clarified, and Juliet nodded, making small choking noises as she tried to hold back sobs.

"Over and over. I…he promised me that he was over her. I don't know what to do." Juliet put her head in her hands, her shoulders rising and falling with every sob. Charlotte quickly got up and moved around the table, sitting down next to Juliet. She put an arm around her, letting her friend cry on her shoulder. Once Juliet had calmed down a little, Charlotte spoke.

"Do you love him?" There was a long pause before Juliet answered.

"Yes." She said finally.

"Then you should talk to him. From the sound of what you told me two days ago, he feels the same way about you – it's not his fault, what he's saying when he's asleep." She told her, before adding with a smile: "For all you know, he's having _nightmares_ about being with Kate again." She felt triumphant as Juliet laughed, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her overalls.

"Okay." She replied, standing up. "I'll talk to him."

"Good." Charlotte replied, standing up as well. "Now, go, before he starts worrying where you are." She told her, and Juliet nodded. The two went to the front door, and before she left Juliet turned and gave her a hug.

"Thank you." She said. "I needed that." Charlotte nodded understandingly.

"Anytime." She told her, and Juliet gave her a last smile before leaving and shutting the door behind her. Charlotte sighed, turning from the door and going upstairs. As she reached the landing Dan came out of the bedroom, and she grinned and greeted him with a hug.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. Juliet was just worried about Jim…and Kate. She thinks he's still in love with her." She told him.

"Oh." He replied. "…Is he?"

"I don't know." She replied honestly. "For Juliet's sake, I hope not." She hugged him tight, and he stroked her hair gently.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, and she shook her head.

"No – I'm just glad that we're not as…angsty as them, that's all." She grinned up at him. "Now…I believe Juliet may have interrupted us before…?"

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_AN: Thanks for reading! I have a favour to ask all readers: please, please, please, I need suggestions for baby names! Leave me any ideas in a review – any name you like (apart from Eloise – sorry guys, but I'm not gonna call their kid Eloise. Dan and his mother don't exactly seem close on the show...I'm not sure whether he'd actually name his kid after her.). It could be your name, your favourite name…anything you like! Boy and girl names - I know what they're having...but you guys won't for awhile! I'm afraid I have no idea what to call their kid…so please help me out! Thanks, and please keep reviewing! I love everyone who reviews!_


	14. Chapter 14

_AN: The last chapter got an INCREDIBLE amount of reviews. I'm so happy! So thanks to: anonymous, BollyKnickers, Charlotte Lewis, DCLOVE, Ewyn, Franbunanza, GGRox07, Jac Danvers, Jennay, Joy Fraser, Lindsey, LittleMissBones, PaoHalliwell, Shirebourn, Stargazer Sunrise and Truegirl. Particular thanks to everyone that left name ideas and __especially__ DCLOVE, who left __two__ reviews about names. All of the names were really nice. Please keep suggesting them! Anyway, enjoy this chapter!_

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When Charlotte woke up the next morning she sat up with a start when she saw the clock.

"Shit!" She mumbled quietly, scrambling out of bed and getting dressed, realizing that she was meant to be at work more than fifteen minutes earlier. Before she left, she crouched down by Dan's side of the bed, touching his shoulder lightly.

"Dan?" She whispered. "Daniel?" He stirred, his eyes opening and looking at her in confusion. "I have to go. I'm late." He went to sit up, but she pushed him down slightly with the hand on his shoulder. "It's fine, go back to sleep; you don't have to work, remember? I'll see you later, okay? I'll try and come back for lunch." She kissed him gently and stood up. "I love you."

"I love you, too." He murmured, and she watched with a smile as he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

- - -

When she got into work, she was surprised to see Amy was sitting at her desk with someone else. It was a man with dark hair – she couldn't tell who he was from behind, but she got a shock when they turned around and she recognized the man as being Michael Staples. Amy stood up and came over to her.

"Hey, Charlotte! I wasn't sure if you were going to come in today." Charlotte realized she'd been looking at Michael and snapped herself out of it, looking over to Amy.

"I'm sorry, I just completely overslept." She looked pointedly back to Michael. "What's going on?" Amy smiled encouragingly at Michael.

"Mike here is going to start working over here with us in a couple of weeks. The Clarks are leaving on the sub, and we were going to be a bit short staffed with just the two of us. So Horace suggested that Mike come over and help us out here. I'm just taking him through everything." There was a long pause. "…Is that going to be okay?" Charlotte realized that she was suppose to reply, and tried her hardest to smile.

"Of course! Why wouldn't it be?" Amy nodded.

"Right, right. So, could you try and sort out that list of people we've got coming in on the sub for me? I'm just going to try and explain the system to Mike."

Charlotte worked for the next hour or so, the room quiet apart from the quiet murmurs of conversation between Amy and Mike. About an hour before lunch, Horace came into, pulling Amy over to the door. They shared an urgent conversation, before Amy hurried over to Charlotte.

"Sorry, Charlotte, but I've got to go. Do you think you could just keep an eye on Mike for me? Make sure he's doing everything okay?" Charlotte nodded.

"Sure." Amy smiled gratefully.

"Thank you! I'll be back after lunch – Horace just really needs me to help him sort something out right now." She said, dashing off out of the door before Charlotte could reply.

"Well this shouldn't be awkward…" She muttered under her breath, getting up to go over to where Mike was sitting. He looked at her apologetically.

"I guess you're stuck babysitting me." He said, and she laughed.

"You need help with anything?" She asked him, and he smiled guiltily.

"Actually, I finished what Amy gave a little while ago." Charlotte raised her eyebrows, but nodded understandingly.

"I suppose Amy does tend to…underestimate things sometimes." He held his hands up.

"Hey, I'm not complaining!" Charlotte smiled, glad that it wasn't as awkward between them as it could've been. "So…we're going to be working together everyday, how about we get to know each other a little bit?" He offered, and she nodded, perching on the edge of Amy's desk where Mike was sat.

"I know your name, and I know that you're here with your wife…but what made you come out and work here?" She asked him, finally able to satisfy some of her curiosity about how her parents had ended up on the Island. Mike leaned in conspiratorially.

"To be honest, we're kind of on the run." He told her with a sly grin. "I mean, not _actually_. My wife…she doesn't get on with her mother." This wasn't anything new to Charlotte; her mother and grandmother were barely on speaking terms when she was growing up, and she'd often found refuge at her grandmother's house in between arguments with her mother as a teenager. "And her mother _really_ hates me. And me and Jeanette…we're not exactly the richest, you know? And things just got worse when I lost my job. My parents are dead, and we couldn't go to my in-laws, so when I heard about this place, we just though you know what? Let's go for it. Nothing to lose, right?" Charlotte smiled sadly, knowing how wrong his words were, and how his stay on the Island would end.

- - -

Five minutes before Charlotte was going to leave, the door opened and Juliet peered round.

"Oh, good, I caught you!" Charlotte slid off the desk, looking at the clock.

"You can go to lunch now, if you want, Mike." He smiled,

"Fine, fine, I know when people want to be left alone." He said with a raised eyebrow, leaving Charlotte and Juliet alone in the room.

"Who was that?" Juliet asked, and Charlotte sighed.

"Michael Staples." She said, and Juliet gave her an odd look.

"You say that like it should mean something."

"He's my father." She replied, and Juliet looked surprised.

"Wow. That's…weird." Charlotte chuckled.

"That's one word for it. Now, what's up? Did you sort things out with Jim?" Juliet grinned.

"Yes. I talked to him, like you said. He didn't even know he was doing it. He felt so bad that he made me feel mean for bringing it up!" Juliet said happily.

"I'm glad." Charlotte told her. "So did he say anything last night?" Juliet blushed.

"I have no idea; I was so exhausted by the time I fell asleep I didn't even take in if he said anything or not. We—" Charlotte cut her off.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to give me _all _the details!" She told her, laughing, and Juliet blushed even deeper.

"I never even asked you how Daniel was." She said, eager to change the subject. "Is he alright?"

"He's just fine." Charlotte said, smiling broadly. "The Doctor said that he was really lucky. Two guys died, and three more got serious radiation poisoning – they're leaving the Island on the sub in a couple of weeks." Juliet was silent for a moment.

"Really, really lucky, then."

- - -

As soon as she'd finished talking with Juliet, Charlotte went home, finding Dan sitting on the sofa and collapsing on the sofa next to him. He'd been writing in one of his old journals, but he put it aside and wrapped his arm around her.

"Bad morning?" She put her head back against his shoulder.

"Not bad, exactly, just…strange. They've moved Michael Staples in to work with me and Amy."

"Your father?" Daniel clarified, and she nodded.

"It's just going to be odd, working with him everyday."

"You could ask Horace if you could work somewhere else?" He suggested, but she shook her head.

"Are you kidding? He's already had to move me once, and I am _not_ going back to working in the garage. I'll just have to stick it out. Besides," she turned around so that her face was only millimeters from his, "it should only be for another couple of months, right?" He smiled and leaned in slightly to kiss her.

"That reminds me," she said when they broke apart, "The doctor suggested that we might want to go to the mainland for the first scan." His smile only grew at her words.

"So when's that going to be?" He asked.

"Well, he said it should be at about six to eight weeks, so that actually works out perfectly; you know Amy's organizing a sub in two weeks to bring new recruits here and take a load of people off? She can't get enough recruits to cover everyone leaving at such short notice, but she managed to get another bunch of them to come on another one in a month. We can just leave on that one. Is that going to be okay?" He kissed her again, gently.

"That's perfect." He replied. She moved until she was sitting on his lap, one knee either side of his legs, wrapping her arms around him tightly and putting her cheek against his.

"I'm so happy." She told him honestly, and he pressed his lips against her neck, making her grin even more.

"So am I." He said, "I can still barely believe that this is happening. It's…"

"Amazing?" She suggested, and he nodded.

"Exactly. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"I think I can second that." She said, and he laughed a little.

"Good."

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_AN: Please keep reading, reviewing, and suggesting names! Next update will be sometime in the next few days. :)_


	15. Chapter 15

_Thanks for all the lovely reviews from: anonymous, Ewyn, Franbunanza, GGRox07, Jac Danvers, jalice-and-karrett, Lauren, Nyx, Shirebourn, TrueGirl, DCLOVE and Jennay. I really do love all of you. Hope you all enjoy this chapter as much! _

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_Charlotte was lying on a table in a room with bare white walls, empty apart from what she recognized as a machine that produced sonograms. She sat up, trying to figure out what was going on, but as she went to stand up the door opened and a doctor walked in, turning to the device before she could see his face. _

"_Well, it would seem like everything we've been doing is going exactly to plan." He said cheerfully, his voice eerily familiar. "I'd say from this scan that that's your baby definitely dead…" He carried on, still cheerful as Charlotte's hands flew to her stomach, her mouth open in shock. "Now, the only thing left to deal with…" He turned around, and dread settled around her heart like a lead weight as she recognized the hate filled face of Benjamin Linus. His hand plunged into his pocket and he pulled out a gun. "Is you." He raised the gun and aimed it at her as she found herself frozen with fear._

"Charlotte?" _She could hear a voice calling to her quietly, but she barely took it in as Linus' eyes locked with hers. Just as he pulled the trigger on the gun, the voice came again. _"Charlotte!"

Charlotte's eyes snapped open. Daniel was hovering over her, looking at her with concern, a hand on her cheek. She grabbed his hand with one of hers, reaching the other down to her stomach.

"Hey, hey, it's alright." He said soothingly, stroking her cheek gently. "You just had a bad dream." She looked at him for a second, and then wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly and pressing her face into his neck.

"It was horrible." She said, and he kissed her hair, rubbing one of his hands up and down her back.

"You were shaking and crying…I had to wake you up, I couldn't see you like that." He told her.

"Thank you." She muttered, trying to calm herself down as her breathing evened out.

"You want to tell me what it was about?" He asked after a moment, and she sighed.

"It was stupid, really." She replied, "It was weird…it was Benjamin Linus…he told me that he'd – he'd killed our baby, Dan." She told him shakily, shifting her hand back to her stomach. "And then just before you woke me up, he said he was going to kill me…it was just scary because I thought he was going to shoot me again." Daniel froze, leaning back to look at her.

"_Again_?" He asked, trying to sound calm but failing miserably. "Charlotte, what do mean 'again'?" She looked at him, confused.

"Did I never tell you?" He smiled uneasily.

"Obviously not." He said, "Do you want to tell me now?"

"When I was with Locke's group and they wouldn't let me go, and they stole my transponder, I tried to get away from them and Linus shot me."

"What?" Daniel said, absolutely aghast at her words.

"Luckily Miles had given me his vest so the shots didn't actually do much apart from knock me out for thirty seconds. Shook me up a bit, but no damage done." Daniel was silent for a minute or so, his jaw locked firmly. "Dan?" She asked cautiously.

"_Bastard_!" He hissed eventually, tightening his arms around her. Charlotte had to suppress a laugh, having never heard him so angry, but another part of her loved him a little bit more, seeing him getting protective of her. "If I ever see him again…" He said, his breath tickling her neck as he pressed a kiss against her skin.

"Well, we're not going to see him again, Dan. In case you hadn't noticed, we're actually in 1975 at the moment, so I'd say the chances of him turning up again are pretty slim." She quipped.

"I can't believe I've almost lost you _twice_ now."

"Honestly, it wasn't really the part where he said he was going to kill me that was the worst…when he told me that he'd killed our baby…" she trailed off, and he covered her hand on her stomach with his own, stroking her hair with his other hand.

"Hey, Char, it's okay, it was just a dream. You're still here, our baby's still here, everything's fine."

"I know." She replied, and as he rolled over onto his back she replaced her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes. With Daniel stroking her hair gently, she eventually fell back to a dreamless sleep.

- - -

When Charlotte woke up, she realized that she was alone, and sat up, looking around.

"Daniel?" She shouted, climbing out of bed. She looked over at the side, her eyes widening when she saw that it was nearly eleven in the morning. She went out into the landing, going downstairs, feeling more and more confused as she realized that Dan wasn't there. She got herself a drink in the kitchen, sitting down. A few minutes later, she heard the front door close quietly and got up to see what Dan had been doing. She saw him coming in the door, and he seemed surprised to see her up.

"Where were you?" She asked, and he smiled a little guiltily.

"I went to tell Amy that you wouldn't be coming in this morning." He explained. "I thought I could let you lie in considering you lost sleep last night. I figured that you're, you know, meant to get as much sleep as possible at the moment." She grinned, putting her glass down and hugging him, leaning her head against his chest.

"Thank you. But why didn't you wake me up before you went? I didn't know where you'd gone." She told him, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Like you'd have stayed in bed. We both know that if I'd woken you up _before_ they already thought that you weren't coming in then you would have just gone in to work anyway." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Fine. But I would have been okay to go into work, you know." Just after she spoke, she found herself unable to stifle a yawn, and Daniel smirked.

"You were saying?" She shoved him playfully.

"Alright, alright, I'll go back to sleep for awhile. But I'm going in this afternoon."

"If you say so." He replied, turning her around and guiding her towards the stairs. Once he got her into bed he kissed her gently.

"Now, get some sleep." He said firmly, and she laughed quietly.

"Only because I love you." She replied, closing her eyes.

"That's fine with me."

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_Please keep up the wonderful reviews, they all really, really make my day. I'm so glad that everyone is enjoying this fic so much, and I'm actually planning for it to have a load more chapters, so it shouldn't be over for a while!!_

**_Review numbers dropped from chapter thirteen to chapter fourteen. Reviews really do mean the world to me, and I love knowing exactly what you guys think of each new chapter. To try and bring numbers back up, I've decided that I won't update this story until I've got fifteen reviews for this chapter - bringing the total to 150. So, basically, if you want to see more of this story, review! _**


	16. Chapter 16

_AN: Right well, sorry about the original update - I've come back to edit it now! Thanks to: BollyKnickers, DCLOVE, TrueGirl, Nyx, Lauren, Shirebourn, StrawberrySwingFieldShortcake, GGRox07, Steph Calvino, Jac Danvers, Russetstorm, Katie, ., anonymous, ---- and Arden. I love you all, they were lovely reviews! Hope you enjoy this chapter!_

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As Charlotte was finishing up at work that afternoon, Daniel surprised her by turning up to see her. She didn't even see him come in, but she heard Amy call out to him.

"Oh, hi Daniel! Have you come to steal Charlotte from us?" She asked cheerily, and Charlotte turned around, greeting him with a smile.

"Sorry Amy, I hope it's okay. I just thought that as Charlotte was just finishing up…" Amy smiled, nodding obligingly.

"Sure Dan, no problem. How are you? We were all worried about you after the accident." She noticed the bandages covering his arms and winced. "Radiation burns?" Daniel looked down at his arms almost as if he'd forgotten about them, and then looked back at Amy.

"Oh, yeah."

"They look painful." Daniel shrugged.

"They're not too bad. I got off lightly compared to some of the other guys." He looked over at Charlotte. "You ready to go?" Charlotte looked questioningly at Amy, who gestured to the door.

"Go ahead, I'm sure I can manage without you for the last ten minutes." She told her, and Charlotte sent her a grateful smile and left with Daniel.

"So what are you doing over here?" She asked, linking her fingers through his as they walked home together.

"I just went to see Horace, to talk to him about getting the sub. I told him that we wanted to see our families – I know that you don't want to say anything yet."

"What did he say?"

"He said it was fine." Charlotte nodded, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"I was thinking, though…I'm going to have to tell Juliet."

"Why's that?" Charlotte chuckled.

"I'm not sure that she's going to buy that we're going to see our families, Dan."

"Right." She nudged his shoulder with her own, leaning against him.

"Silly man." He took his hand away from hers and wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her close to him.

"So when are you going to tell her then." She shrugged.

"May as well do it today. I'll go over there this evening, before Jim gets back; I don't think I can face any of his stupid jokes."

- - -

- - -

Charlotte knocked on Juliet's door later that evening, and when Juliet opened the door her face was flushed and she had a broad smile on her face.

"Hey, come in." Charlotte followed Juliet into the lounge, noticing as she sat down the opened bottle of Dharma issue champagne.

"Have I missed something?" Juliet grinned.

"James got promoted. Head of security!" She told her happily, and as soon as she said it Charlotte knew that she couldn't tell Juliet that evening; it wouldn't be fair to rain on Sawyer's parade.

"That's great!" She told her, and Juliet nodded.

"It is. But anyway, what did you come over here for, if you hadn't heard?"

"Oh…I just wanted to see how things were going with you two." She said eventually, and Juliet looked surprised.

"Everything's fine." She replied.

"No more talking in his sleep?" Charlotte asked, and Juliet laughed.

"No, he hasn't said anything at all since I spoke to him about it."

"That's good." Charlotte heard the front door open, and Juliet looked up towards to door eagerly.

"Juliet?" Sawyer shouted from the hallway, and Charlotte stood up.

"I'll leave you two alone." She said, heading into the hall.

"You don't have to leave, Charlotte. Why don't you stay, have a drink with us?" Juliet suggested, but Charlotte shook her head.

"No, it's fine, I'd better head home. Besides – I'm sure you two have some celebrating to do." She said with a sly smile, laughing as Juliet blushed.

- - -

- - -

"That was quick." Daniel said when Charlotte came in the door. "What did she say?"

"I didn't tell her." She replied, sitting down next to him. "Jim got promoted today, and Juliet was so excited it felt like it would steal their thunder, you know? I'll tell her tomorrow or something." Daniel didn't reply as she pulled her legs up onto the couch and moved until she was lying on it with her head in his lap. "So what are you going to find to for the next three and a half weeks?" Daniel groaned.

"Don't remind me. Horace kept insisting that I could just stay at home and 'take some down time'. I think I may actually go crazy if I have to stay in this house every single day for nearly a month." He said, absentmindedly fiddling with her hair.

"You could fill in with me in administration. We've only got three people working there right now, and we could really use another pair of hands to sort out the sub runs coming up." She offered.

"I don't want to invade you at work though, Char, I mean, won't you get annoyed with me if I'm with you all the time?" Charlotte laughed.

"You think I'm going to get bored of you, Dan?"

"Something like that." He replied, and she shook her head.

"Come on, Dan. I'm not going to get tired of you or anything. And we could _seriously_ use the help. Amy was so stressed when I got there today." Daniel looked surprised.

"She seemed pretty calm when I got there."

"That was after she dumped a mountain of paper work on me." Charlotte said, sounding a little irritated.

"So you wouldn't mind if I came and helped you guys out for a couple of weeks?" Daniel asked.

"Sure, it'll work out well for me. I can dump the paperwork Amy gives _me_ on _you_." She said jokingly, and Daniel laughed. "Seriously, it'll be good. I'll talk to Amy about it tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be fine."

- - -

- - -

"Charlotte, can I talk to you for a moment?" Charlotte jumped when she heard Juliet speaking, and turned to look at her.

"What's up Juliet?"

"Outside." Juliet said seriously, grabbing Charlotte's arm.

"Oh, okay, we're going outside." Charlotte said in confused amusement as Juliet dragged her to the door.

"Why didn't you tell me that you're leaving?" She hissed, before shaking her head. "No, wait, scratch that. Why are you leaving full stop? You think I want to be stuck on this godforsaken island anymore than you do? Because believe me, I'd do anything to get off, but apparently unlike you, _I've_ realized that there's no point leaving when we're still stuck in 1975!" Charlotte stood still, too surprised by Juliet's outburst to try and interrupt her; she'd never seen Juliet loose her cool like this. "And what, did you think that you could just leave without even telling us? Imagine how stupid me and James looked when Horace asked us if we knew that you two were getting the sub out of here in three weeks! I mean, what possible reason could you have for leaving _now_?" Charlotte gave her a small smile.

"I'm pregnant." Juliet's mouth formed an 'o' of surprise as she stared at Charlotte for a few seconds.

"Oh."

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_AN: Sorry it got cut off in an awkward place there guys, I wanted to continue but I have to go out in a minute and if I didn't update now I wouldn't be able to until tomorrow evening. Just a note: __I put a poll on my profile for girls names. I picked the most popular names and the ones I liked, so go vote for your favourite two!! I'll close that poll next Saturday and do boys names, but please vote if you want a say in what their name! If you're an anonymous reviewer then if you leave your choices from the poll in a review I'll add them to the total result, as if you don't have an account, you can't vote._

I forgot to mention last time - I like to respond to reviews induvidually, so if you're an anonymous reviewer and would like a reply, feel free to leave an email address and I'll get back to you!

Let's go for fifteen more reviews, making it 167 - so if you like the story, REVIEW! No more updates until the review count reaches 167!


	17. Chapter 17

_Thanks to: DCLOVE, Jac Danvers, ----, Nyx, Steph Calvino, TrueGirl, GGRox07, Shirebourn, CharladayLove ,LoversInJapan, Cecilia, Lauren, Franbunanza, Katie and, last but by no means least, anonymous. I love you all very, very much. :) I'm sorry I haven't replied to each review individually yet, but I'll try and catch up with them tomorrow! Hope you enjoy this chapter!_

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"You're pregnant?" Juliet asked disbelievingly, "Are you serious?"

"No, I was joking – I thought it would be funny to see your reaction." Charlotte said sarcastically, and Juliet frowned.

"It's not really a laughing matter, Charlotte." She said calmly, and Charlotte's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms defensively.

"You may be older than me, Juliet, but you don't need to patronize me." She said sharply.

"I'm not trying to patronize you, Charlotte. I just want you to realize that after all the time I've spent on this Island, I'd say one of the biggest things I've learnt about this place is that getting pregnant here is _not_ a good idea." Juliet said in the same infuriatingly calm tone, which only managed to annoy Charlotte even further.

"So what are you suggesting that I do, Juliet? Because, although I may not be a baby doctor like you, as I far I was aware once you were pregnant that's it, done. Final." She replied, her irritation obvious in her voice. Juliet looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Well…it doesn't have to be…." She said slowly, and for a second Charlotte didn't realize what she was suggesting. Once she understood, however, her mouth opened and she felt red-hot anger build up inside her.

"What?" She hissed, and Juliet put her hands on her hips, glaring at her.

"Look, Charlotte, you haven't exactly made it easy for yourself, have you? Do you know what happens to pregnant women on this Island?" Charlotte had heard Juliet's rant about pregnancies on the island before, but Juliet carried on going, her face growing redder and redder. "They _die_ Charlotte. Do you want to die? You can't just leave and think you'll get left alone – you don't think someone somewhere is going to ask for some ID of some sort – and then you'll put all of us in danger just because you were stupid enough to get pregnant!" Before she even realized exactly what she doing, Charlotte's hand reached out in front of her and she slapped Juliet hard. Juliet stumbled backwards slightly, putting her hand to her cheek and staring at Charlotte angrily.

"I've heard your little speech before, Juliet. But two women have got pregnant since we've been living here, and they've been absolutely fine! Whatever was happening to the women when you first came here isn't happening yet!" Juliet seemed to soften a little.

"Do you really want to risk it, Charlotte? Is it really worth it? I mean, have you actually thought about it properly?" Charlotte turned on her heel and went back inside, calling back to Juliet over her shoulder.

"I don't need to think about it, Juliet."

- - -

- - -

By the time she finished work Charlotte was still fuming, hardly able to believe everything Juliet had said to her. She slammed the door when she got home, drawing Daniel out into the hallway with the loud noise.

"Is there something wrong?" Charlotte didn't answer, storming up the stairs. "Did you talk to Juliet?" He guessed.

"I don't want to talk about it." She seethed, and Daniel followed her up the stairs.

"Did she say something to you?" He asked, and she turned in the doorway to look at him before she went into their bedroom.

"I said that I don't want to talk about it!" She shouted, before shutting the door in his face.

- - -

- - -

After waiting outside the door for a few minutes to see if Charlotte would come out, Daniel decided to go and talk to Juliet himself. Charlotte normally told him when something was bothering her, and the fact that she wouldn't talk about what happened between her and Juliet made him worried that Juliet had said something that had really got to Charlotte. When Juliet opened the door she sighed when she saw him, only opening the door half way.

"Did Charlotte send you?" She asked defensively, and Daniel shook his head.

"No. I don't even know what happened between the two of you; she's shut herself in the bedroom and won't talk to me, so I figured you were probably the next best person to ask about it." He said, and after a moment she reluctantly opened the door to let him come in. "I take it she told you, though?" He clarified, and Juliet laughed humorlessly.

"Eventually – not until after Horace had told me and James that you two were leaving on the sub in three weeks. It would have all been a lot easier if she could have just told me herself in the first place why you were going without leaving us to find out for ourselves." She said, and Daniel was quick to defend Charlotte.

"She wanted to tell you yesterday – she tried to, that's why she came over here yesterday evening. But then she got here and you told her that James had just promoted, and she didn't want you to think she was stealing his thunder."

"Oh. I didn't realize that." Juliet said eventually, looking a little unsettled.

"Obviously." Daniel replied, and Juliet went back to defensive.

"But still! I don't think that you guys actually understand how big a problem this is! Daniel, when I came first came here, I was here to try and save the pregnant women on this Island. They all _died_, Daniel. Do you want that to happen to Charlotte?" Daniel was silent for a minute, considering.

"But…we've seen women here, in 1974…they've got pregnant and they haven't died."

"It hasn't happened yet, Daniel. Whatever it is that is going to make all pregnant women die hasn't happened yet. But who's to say that it couldn't happen while Charlotte's pregnant? And you can't just leave, either; how long do you think you'll last with no sort of ID – birth certificates, drivers license, that sort of thing?" Daniel looked at her in confusion.

"So what are you suggesting?" He asked, and Juliet sighed again.

"Look, Dan. Maybe it's not what you want to hear, but maybe Charlotte being pregnant isn't the best thing to happen right now. There are ways…she doesn't have to be…" Daniel stepped back, recoiling from Juliet in shock.

"You asked Charlotte to get an abortion?" Juliet looked defiant.

"I didn't _ask_ her to, I just think that it's the only way to avoid any huge problems it's going to cause you two, or any of us for that matter!"

"That's it with you though, Juliet, isn't it? It's not really about Charlotte; it's about you as well. You're so used to looking out for yourself first that you can't consider just letting someone else be happy even if it's risky for you." He told her, and Juliet kept her gaze fixed on the floor. "What did Charlotte say when you said all this to her, anyway?"

"She didn't say too much, but I think the hand shaped make forming on my cheek speaks for itself." She replied dryly. Daniel smiled slightly; he knew that he shouldn't but for some reason he couldn't stop himself feeling immensely proud of Charlotte. He turned to leave, not wanting to hear any more of what Juliet wanted to say, but she reached out and grabbed his arm. "Please, Daniel. I just don't think that you've thought this through. Don't you realize how many questions this is going to bring, how much more complicated things are going to be now?" She pleaded, but he just shrugged her hand off, looking at her coolly.

"You know what I don't understand, Juliet? After everything you've been through with Jim, Charlotte's only been supportive when you've come to her, even though you hardly gave her any reason to be back when we first came on the freighter. And now it just seems like you're throwing it all back in her face."

- - -

- - -

When Daniel got back, he was surprised to find Charlotte sitting in the hallway on the floor, her back to the wall and he knees tucked up to her chest. When she heard him come in she looked up, relief flooding her face. As he sat down next to her, she leant against him.

"I'm sorry." She said, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissing her hair.

"_I'm_ sorry that you had to go through what Juliet said to you." He said, and she looked at him in surprise.

"How do you know what she said to me?"

"Where do you think I was? I guessed that whatever Juliet said to you had made you upset, so I went to find out what happened." He shook his head. "I can't believe what she said. Still, at least she's got a nice bruise on her cheek to show for it." He said, and Charlotte laughed.

"She deserved that slap." She replied, and he nodded in agreement.

"Definitely." He gestured to the floor. "So what are you doing sitting here?" She put her head on his shoulder.

"I came down when I heard you leave. I didn't know where you'd gone…I was worried." She admitted.

"Why do you worry so much when I go? You know I'll always come back." He said gently, and she shrugged.

"I just…I get paranoid about stuff like that sometimes." He sensed there was more to what she was saying, but she changed the subject before he could ask her anything else. "Amy said you can come and help out tomorrow."

"About that…I'm not sure that I should, Char. It's your thing, I don't want to intrude." Charlotte looked crestfallen.

"You won't be intruding, Dan. Besides, Amy's got Mike coming in for the rest of the week." When she said this, he realized why she wanted him there and turned to look at her.

"Charlotte, if you want me there because your dad's going to be there, you only have to say." She tried to look like she didn't know what he was talking about for a second, but then she relented.

"I want you there because my dad's going to be there." She said, and he kissed her gently. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face against his neck, and he held her close.

"Of course I'll be there." He replied, and she sighed contentedly against him.

"I know that maybe I don't say it very often, Daniel, but I'm so lucky that I have you." She said honestly, and he grinned.

"I think I'm the lucky one, Char. I love you."

"I love you too." She said, and then kissed him.

* * *

_AN: By the way, I narrowed down the poll to those names with more than two votes, so there are only five names left. If you don't have an account leave your favourite 0NE name and I'll happily add it to the final count. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid updates will become less frequent now that I'm back to school, to about once a week. I'll try to do it more often than that, but I'm sure people understand that school has to come first._

_I'm sorry if Juliet seems at all out of character - I did wonder when I was writing it, but then I remembered how far she went to make Sun and Jin stay on the beach in season 4, and the idea is that she was thinking of Charlotte as well when she suggested that she got an abortion, because she doesn't want her to die. But I do think we have seen a more ruthless side to Juliet, and she does look out for herself first. But she does think she's doing the right thing! Don't worry, I'm sure her and Charlotte will make up - I love Juliet too much to keep them arguing!_

_Let's go for fifteen more reviews: Let's get to 186, people! No more updates till the total review count is 186. Don't forget to vote on your favourite name in the poll!!_


	18. Chapter 18

_I'm so sorry that it's been such a long time (compared to in between previous chapters) since the last update! Life is pretty hectic at the moment – I'm doing HOURS of revision every day for a huge exam that's coming up, but as of May 12__th__ I should be free to update much more often. Huge thanks to: BollyKnickers, Stargazer Sunrise, Steph Calvino,----, Franbunanza, Nyx, DCLOVE, anonymous, CharladayLove, TrueGirl, GGRox, Pao Halliwell, Jac Danvers, Shirebourn, Cecilia, Ewyn, , Lauren and antarticasky for the amazing reviews. Another huge thanks to Steph Calvino for her lovely suggestion which I think I will probably be using in a later chapter! Just to let everyone know that the voting has finished for girls names, and the new poll for potential boys names is now up on my profile. Exactly the same as before, if you don't have an account, please feel free to leave your two name choices in a review and I'll add them to the total score. Voting finishes next Sunday, and I'll narrow down the names on Wednesday. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!_

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Charlotte was suddenly pulled from her sleep in the middle of the night by the overwhelming feeling that she was about to be sick. She quickly untangled herself from Daniel and bolted to the bathroom, apparently making it just in time. As she sat back on her heels, she felt a warm hand on her back, and looked round to see Daniel kneel down beside her.

"Daniel, don't worry, go back to bed, I'm fine, really, I—" She felt her stomach churn and as she turned to throw up again Daniel stroked her hair gently, the other hand on her shoulder. After a couple of minutes she slumped back, and Daniel hurriedly managed to move so that she could lean against him. Finally, Charlotte groaned, clambering to her feet.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Charlotte nodded, reaching over to grab his wrist, reading the time from his watch.

"God, just gone two…hardly _morning_ sickness, is it?" She grumbled, and Daniel chuckled tiredly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they made their way back to bed. Charlotte was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, but Daniel found himself unable to sleep, the words Juliet had hurled at him earlier on rushing back into his brain as he watched the sleeping form of the woman he loved.

When Juliet had told him about pregnant women dying on the Island, he'd brushed it off with the fact that they'd seen pregnant women survive since they'd got there…but now that he'd had time to think about it all he was wondering if he hadn't taken her words seriously enough. After all, how _did_ he know that whatever would happen on the island that was going to start killing pregnant women wouldn't happen while Charlotte was pregnant? He ran a gentle hand over her cheek, the idea of anything happening to her or their baby making his heart ache. Of course, there was no way he was in favor of Juliet's suggestion of an abortion…but maybe he should suggest to Charlotte that they could stay off the island whilst she was pregnant; there was no way he was going to lose her – lose both of them. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling a surge of protectiveness as she twisted in her sleep and rested her head against his shoulder.

"I'll protect you." He whispered against her ear, "Both of you."

- - -

- - -

'Dan? Wake up." Daniel blinked, seeing Charlotte leaning over him. "Come on, you have to get up." He must have looked confused, because she laughed and carried on. "You're helping me at work, remember?" He sat up slowly, scrubbing at his bleary eyes with the heel of his hands. Charlotte let out an uncharacteristic giggle and put a hand on his cheek. "I think someone is a little too used to sleeping in!" She joked, poking his chest gently. "Regretting this now?" He pulled her hand from his cheek, kissing her palm.

"You asked me to go with you," he reminded her, "so I'm going with you." She grinned, and as she turned to get out of bed he held on to her hand, pulling her back and kissing her gently.

"What was that for?" She asked afterwards, and he feigned hurt.

"I need a reason now?"

"Fair enough." She kissed him again, weaving her fingers into his hair. "We – we really need to get up." She managed to get out in between kisses, but he just tightened his arms around her waist.

"No." He replied. "No, we don't _have _to…"

- - -

- - -

"Sorry we're late, Amy." Charlotte said as they came in, and Amy raised her eyebrows at her slyly.

"I'm sure you are." She said sarcastically. "Are you going to be alright to show Daniel the ropes?"

"I'm sure I'll manage." Charlotte replied dryly. "Is Michael in today?" Amy shook her head.

"No, he came over earlier to tell me that Jeanette's sick and he was going to stay home with her." She turned around, shuffling a stack of papers on a nearby table. "And, as we all know, no one gets sick on this island, so he's either making it up, or Jeanette's pregnant." She paused for a moment, before turning back to Daniel and Charlotte, looking at them with interest. "When are we going to be seeing kids from the two of you, anyway?" She asked, and Charlotte nearly laughed out loud. She managed to suppress it, merely shrugging.

"I don't know." She said vaguely. "We'll see."

"Hmm." Amy said, smirking as she turned away from them, going to sit behind her own desk on the other side of the room.

"That was spooky." Dan said quietly after a moment, and Charlotte nodded.

"Yeah – but I know exactly how to get her back. Watch this—" She looked up, raising her voice. "You've been spending quite a lot of time with Horace recently, haven't you, Amy? Something going on that we don't know about?" She asked casually, and looked triumphant when Amy blushed bright red.

"He's been snowed under with work recently – I've just been helping him out with some of it." She replied defensively.

"Sure, sure." Charlotte said quietly, looking at Daniel conspiratorially as Amy turned back to her work. As she pulled out what she needed to teach Daniel, he looked like he was debating whether or not to say something, finally spitting it out.

"You don't think your—" He stopped, correcting himself. "_Jeanette_ is pregnant, do you?"

"She can't be." Charlotte replied, surprising Daniel with the sharpness in her voice. "It's only 1975. Why would you think that?"

"Well, it's just like Amy said, isn't it: no one gets sick on this island." He said, but Charlotte just shook her head.

"Well, she's not." She insisted, quickly changing the subject. "Now, we just need to check through these forms…"

- - -

- - -

"Charlotte…do you think you should talk to Juliet?" Daniel suggested tentatively as they approached lunchtime, and Charlotte sighed.

"That's what I was just wondering." She admitted. "I think I probably should." She hesitated for a moment, before reaching over to the huge stack of forms sitting on the edge of the desk. "But I have so much work here to do…" Daniel quickly slid the forms away from her, and she instead grabbed the smaller pile directly in front of her. "I'll go after I've sorted these out?" She said hopefully, but Daniel just tugged the papers gently out of her hands.

"Just go, Charlotte. She's your friend, you two should try and sort things out. I'm sure she only said what she said to try and do what's best for you." Charlotte didn't look entirely convinced, but simply stood up.

"I hope you're right." She kissed him quickly. "Wish me luck."

* * *

_AN: Right, let's see if we can do it: can we get __20__ reviews for this chapter? That would bring the total count to 210. No more updates until then - see you at 210 reviews! Don't forget to vote for your favourite boys name in the poll!_


	19. Chapter 19

_AN: I'm so, so sorry it's taken so long to update! I had written 90% of this chapter when I saw The Variable, but after seeing the episode I scrapped the whole thing and started again. I don't want to say too much in case there's anybody reading this who hasn't seen it, but I thought that it was a really good episode, except I wasn't too keen on then end. It could have been better, if you know what I mean. Thanks to: DCLOVE, LittleMissBones, StephCalvino, Shirebourn, GGRox07, PaoHalliwell, Cecilia, , ErinXnirE, anonymous, TrueGirl, Nyx, Lauren, Franbunanza, ----, Stargazer Sunrise, Meggie_Sawyer4, Avery Blaire, Jac Danvers, Joy Fraser, AllieMcD and TJtrack99 for all the lovely reviews. I can't believe how many there were! Hope you all like this chapter._

* * *

"Juliet?" Charlotte said, banging on the side of the car to get her friend's attention. Juliet rolled out from under the car, and Charlotte felt slightly guilty when she saw the bruising on Juliet's cheek. Juliet stood up and proceeded to wipe the grease from her face with the back of her hand, before looking at Charlotte in complete silence for several seconds. Charlotte felt uncomfortable for a moment until she realized that that was exactly how Juliet wanted her to feel, and then sighed. "Can we try and sort this out?" She asked, and Juliet crossed her arms.

"I don't know. Are you going to slap me again?" Juliet said dryly.

"Look, I'm sorry about that. But the things you said, Juliet…surely you've got to see _why_ I slapped you?" Juliet looked around, and when she noticed that several people working around them were attempting to listen in on their conversation, she gestured for Charlotte to follow her. They went over to the small area where a pot of cold coffee left over from the morning stood on a table, a few chairs positioned around it. Juliet sat down in one, and Charlotte sat down opposite her.

"Have you ever been pregnant, Juliet?" She asked her.

"What's it matter?" Juliet replied.

"Have you?" She repeated, and after a second Juliet shook her head.

"No. My sister was, though. When I first came to the Island."

"Was it at the best time?"

"What do you mean by that?" Charlotte shrugged.

"Was there anything else that was going on when she got pregnant? Anything that meant that she, maybe, shouldn't have got pregnant?" Juliet ran a weary hand over her forehead.

"She had cancer." She told her reluctantly. Charlotte was surprised; she and Juliet had become good friends in their time at Dharma, but Juliet had never mentioned anything about her sister ever having cancer. Still, she carried on.

"Did you tell her to get an abortion?" Juliet shook her head slowly.

"No, I didn't. But Charlotte, this—"

"Why not?" Charlotte pressed, and Juliet sighed.

"Because it was what she wanted. What she _had_ wanted, for so long. It didn't matter what the circumstances were." She looked Charlotte in the eyes. "This is so different, Charlotte."

"Why's it different, Juliet? Just because I didn't – we, Dan and I – just because we didn't plan this doesn't mean we don't want it to happen. Doesn't mean we're not happy about it." Juliet opened her mouth to speak, but Charlotte quickly jumped in before her. "I know it's not exactly the best timing ever, and to be completely honest with you I'm bloody terrified about it all." She leant forward. "But other than that, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me." Juliet wrung her hands together, looking worried.

"It's not just that you're pregnant, Charlotte, it's that you're leaving the Island. What happens if Locke comes back? You'll be gone and we won't be able to find you to get everyone back to the right time. Not to mention the fact that you'll have to spend the rest of your lives living even more of a lie than we're living here." She said, her eyes wide with apprehension. Charlotte was surprised.

"We're not _leaving_, Juliet, not for good. I have to go off Island for a check up, the doctor here said, but after that I can come back. Believe me, I have no intention of leaving this Island." Juliet looked relieved, and Charlotte took this to be a good sign. "So this isn't as bad as you thought originally?" She asked cautiously, and Juliet looked thoughtful for a moment.

"You definitely want to do this?" She asked eventually, and Charlotte nodded. Juliet gave her a small smile. "Then I'm not going to stop you."

- - -

- - -

"Hey, Faraday!" Daniel turned to see Miles jogging over to him, a smirk on his face.

"Something wrong, Miles?" Daniel asked politely, and Miles laughed knowingly.

"I wouldn't say anything's _wrong_, Faraday. It's just that I heard something quite interesting through the grapevine this morning. Something Juliet told LaFleur last night." He laughed again. "She probably shouldn't have; it turns out that LaFleur's quite the gossip." By now Daniel had guessed exactly what it was that Sawyer had told Miles, so stayed silent until Miles was forced to speak again. "Don't you want to know what LaFleur told me?"

"I think I can guess." Daniel replied simply, and Miles sighed in irritation.

"You really are no fun, Dan. So, go on then. When did you find out?" Daniel looked at Miles questioningly, feigning ignorance.

"Find out what?"

"That you knocked Charlotte up. When did you find out?"

"Earlier this week. On Thursday." Miles shoved Daniel lightly with his shoulder.

"Never thought you had it in you, Faraday. So, what does this make me, an uncle?" At Daniel's surprised look, he relented. "Fine, fine. But come on, I've got to at least be a godfather or something!"

"How'd you figure that?"

"I've known you the longest." Miles argued, and Daniel chuckled.

"Talk to Charlotte about it." He offered, and Miles scowled.

"Yeah, I'm sure that would go down just great." He said sarcastically. "I think I'll leave you as the only one who has to go through conversations with Charlotte, thanks." He clapped Daniel on the shoulder. "Anyway, congratulations." He walked off, before turning briefly.

"And just remember, it's either me or LaFleur!" Daniel laughed, amused by Miles' badly hidden eagerness.

"What's Miles going on about now?" He looked round to see Charlotte coming over to him, and he smiled and held his hand out to her, which she took once she reached him.

"He's putting in a bid to be godfather." Charlotte frowned.

"You told him?" Daniel shook his head.

"No, Juliet told Jim, and Jim told Miles." He explained, and Charlotte sighed.

"So much for keeping it quiet." She said quietly. Daniel pulled her closer as they approached their house, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"How did it go with Juliet?" He asked.

"I think she's coming round to the idea." She told him happily, pushing her hair back out of her face. "She hadn't realized that we were coming back after the check up – she thought that we were leaving for good on the sub."

"Oh. And now she knows that we're not…?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"She says that if we want to do this then she's not going to stop us." She laughed a little. "I think that's the closest we're going to get to her being happy for us." Daniel shrugged.

"As long as you're happy about it, I don't care what Juliet thinks." He told her honestly. She wrapped her arm around his waist, leaning into him.

"You have no worries there."

* * *

_AN: Hope you liked the chapter! I'll try to get the next one up as soon as possible. I'm going ask for twenty two reviews, bringing the total to 235 (because I like numbers which end in 5s or 0s...), but I'll add an extra incentive: (this idea was shamelessly stolen from Belle Vita – I hope you don't mind!!) I've picked a number in my head between 214 and 235, and whoever leaves that review will receive a oneshot of their choice, i.e they can request a pairing, scenario etc. So get reviewing if you'd like a oneshot, and the review has to be left for this chapter! I'll announce the reviewer next chapter! Also, I'm going to extend the time you can vote on the narrowed down boys' name vote until this Friday, so head over to my profile and vote there or leave me your choice in a review! Also, to ErinXnirE and anyone else who missed the girls' vote, the choices were: Lily, Rebecca, Abigail, Alice and Olivia. You have until the next chapter is posted to vote! _


	20. Chapter 20: AN

_ Hi everyone. Sorry to get your hopes up for a new chapter, and believe me when I say that I really wish I could be spending my time writing lots of new chapters for you all instead of revising. I'm afraid that real life has to come first for a little bit, so you won't see an update for this until at least next weekend (definitely after May 16__th__). I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting, and after that I'm pretty sure I'll be able to update at least once a week._

_ On another note, once this extremely busy week or so is over and I can get back to updating Storm more frequently, I'll be free to write as often as I can. If anyone has any suggestions for any fics, I'd love to hear them. Any pairing, any character, I really don't mind. Oneshots preferably, but I'm open to suggestions. Also, after Storm is finished, would anyone be interested in reading a multi chapter, AU, no island Dan/Charlotte fic? I've got drafts of a few chapters floating around, so if anyone would like to read it I'd love to write it properly once Storm is finished._

_ Just to add at the bottom a HUGE thanks to everyone who read and reviewed 'In My Heart You Grow, and That's Where You Belong', I love all of you. __**TrueGirl**__, I've started writing your oneshot, and it should be up soon. (__**TrueGirl**__ was the lucky reviewer who's review was number 226, the number I was thinking of.) __**Anonymous**__, I'd love to hear your fic idea from 'Follow The Leader' and if you tell me what you had in mind then I'd really like to have a go at writing it for you._

_ Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far (238 reviews is absolutely immense, you wouldn't believe how happy I am that you all like this story!), and I hope you won't give up on me – this story WILL be continued, so please keep reviewing!!_

_(P.S please don't tell on me for this note/chapter thing…I'm sure you all know what I mean.)_


	21. Chapter 21

_Thank you to everyone who reads this even after the long gap between chapters. The last week has been horrendously busy, but I should hopefully now be able to update about once a week, depending on how much work I get from school. If you haven't already, maybe you'll check out the three oneshots that I've posted since the last chapter? One is Sawyer/Juliet but the other two and Daniel/Charlotte, and I'm particularly proud of You Love Me, so if you get a moment I'd love to hear what all of my Storm readers think of them! (By the way, __**Nyx**__, I added you on livejournal and if you get a second maybe you'll add me back?)_

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_

Daniel woke with a start, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to wipe the images of Charlotte's lifeless body from his mind. It was a dream that plagued him far too often: nosebleeds and seizures in the middle of the jungle, that last flash coming and wiping the life from her eyes right in front of him. Every time it just reminded him how lucky he was to have her there with him, and he looked down at the redhead curled against his chest with a small smile, sighing in relief as he tightened his hold on her just a little. He glanced over Charlotte's shoulder at the clock, smiling and closing his eyes briefly before remembering that he was meant to go down to the infirmary to get the bandages on his arms changed. At that thought he twitched his arms experimentally, realizing that he had pretty much forgotten about his injuries in everything else that had been going on since the accident. He slowly removed his arms from around Charlotte and rolled out of bed quietly, trying his hardest not to wake her. Once he was dressed he quickly leant over and kissed her forehead before slipping out of the room.

- - -

- - -

When Charlotte woke up she was surprised to find herself alone, her arms stretched out across the cold pillow next to her as opposed to the warm body she'd fallen asleep next to the night before. She sat up, looking around the room and, seeing it was empty, got up and ventured out onto the landing.

"Daniel?" She called, glancing into the bathroom before heading downstairs. "Dan?" Frowning as she realized that the house was empty, Charlotte wracked her brains to try and remember whether Dan had mentioned anything he had to that morning. Drawing a blank, she sighed and went back upstairs to get dressed, puzzled as to where he could be.

- - -

- - -

"Daniel not joining us today?" Amy asked as Charlotte sat down at her desk.

"No." She replied stiffly, not really wanting to admit that she didn't know where her own husband was.

"Why not?" Amy questioned.

"He has things to do, okay?" Charlotte snapped, sighing only a moment later when she saw Amy's offended expression out of the corner of her eye. Still, Charlotte wasn't one for apologies, and let the cold silence between the two of them continue until Amy decided to drop a bombshell on her.

"I was checking through the lists for people meant to be taking the sub on the 23rd, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fit you guys on to be honest with you, Charlotte." Charlotte turned to look at her, her mouth dropping open slightly.

"What do you mean, you can't fit us on? Horace said—"

"We have to put other people before you guys. There are people who want to leave the Island because they're worried about their families, and those people have to be put first." Amy said matter of factly. "The sub's going to come back next month – I'm sure you guys can wait another couple of weeks to see your families."

"Look, Amy, if this is about just now then I'm sorry, I was just—"

"Charlotte, I don't hold grudges _that_ easily." Amy said tersely, pulling a few sheets from the huge stack in front of her. "We really are running out of room on the sub, look for yourself." She told her, holding the papers out in front of her. Charlotte walked over and grabbed the papers, glancing over them and seeing that Amy was right, there were only a handful of places left for a sub that wasn't leaving for more than two weeks. "See?" Amy said, looking at Charlotte sympathetically. "Sorry Charlotte, but if those places get taken up then you guys are gonna have to wait for the next one." Charlotte sighed as she passed the sheets back to Amy and running her hand over her forehead.

"Bloody fantastic."

- - -

- - -

"Good morning, Daniel, glad you could make it!" The doctor said warmly as Daniel entered the infirmary.

"Sorry I'm late, I—"

The doctor waved his remark off, standing up from his chair beside one of the beds and gesturing for Daniel to follow him to one of the back rooms.

"Don't worry about it, it's fine. I'm sorry it had to be so early but we're doing the blood transfusion today so I wanted to clear the rest of the morning to make sure everything's going to be able to run smoothly." He pulled a chair out and Daniel sat down as the doctor pulled out a fresh set of bandages.

"I take it your wife told you about our meeting a couple of days ago?" The doctor asked conversationally as he stripped the material from Daniel's arms. Daniel nodded, a small smile forming on his face. The doctor smirked at his expression. "I take it that it was good news, then?"

"Great news." Daniel corrected him, wincing a little as the doctor ripped the last of his bandages from his left arm.

"Sorry." He apologized quickly before reaching for a small bottle on the table next to him. "This is gonna sting." He warned, and Daniel tried to keep in a hiss of pain as the doctor pressed the cold rag against the red skin of burnt arms. "So how long have the two of you been married?"

"Just over two years now." Daniel repeated the story he and Charlotte had come up with. "We met at Oxford." The doctor nodded, wrapping the clean bandages around Daniel's forearm.

"I came out here with my wife as well. It was actually her who wanted to come out here; she was a doctor too, a surgeon really, but she wanted to come out here because she thought it be less dramatic than working in a hospital. Less deaths, she said. If only she'd known…" He mused quietly, and as Daniel guessed where the story was going he became a little uncomfortable. "One day Horace comes running in to say a couple of guys who went through the fence have gotten themselves shot by the Hostiles and they need her to go and take a look at them. She'd barely gotten through the fence herself before they've put a bullet in her back and disappeared back into the jungle." There was a moment of awkward silence. "That was four years ago, and I'm still here…doing her job for her." He smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry." Daniel said eventually, not sure what else he could say. The doctor shook his head a little, nearly finished on Daniel's other arm.

"Your arms have healed remarkably quickly," He said, surprising Daniel with the sudden change in subject. "I've never seen burns this severe heal so fast." He taped up the last of the material. "There! All done." Daniel stood up, pulling his sleeves down over the bandages.

"Thank you…?" The doctor smiled, holding out a hand.

"David. David Lewis." Daniel shook his hand, unable to hide his shock. "Something wrong?"

Daniel shook his head,

"No, no, it's just that my wife's last name was Lewis before we got married, that's all." David smiled.

"Small world." Daniel tried to return the smile.

"Very small."

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_AN: Thanks for reading! As I enjoyed writing the oneshot for __**TrueGirl**__ so much, I'm gonna make the same offer as last time: I have a number in my head between 245 and 268 – if your review is that number then I'll PM you and you can request any Lost oneshot you like and I'll try and write it for you as soon as possible! Please review!_


	22. Chapter 22

_AN: Sorry it's been so long! This chapter was really hard to write, but I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks to all of my reviewers: DCLOVE, Stargazer Sunrise, , CharladayLove, StephCalvino, GGRox07, LittleMissBones, TrueGirl, LoversInJapan, AllForTheBest, Ellen, Jac Danvers, Lauren, jalice-and-karrett, Shirebourn, Ewyn, ----, Russetstorm, Cecilia and Anonymous. I'd like to point everyone in the direction of the AMAZING FANART drawn by __**StephCalvino**__ – the link to it is up on my profile, and it's inspired by chapter eighteen. Also, I just wanted to say that this fic will not have very much Saywer/Juliet in it after all; I've just posted the first chapter of my new Sawyer/Juliet fic, so if they're you're ship that might be the story for you. Enjoy this chapter!_

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If Charlotte had thought her day had started badly, it could only get worse. There was still an air of hostility between her and Amy, and her anger was only intensified by Amy's smug look when the last five places on the sub were taken.

"Sorry, Amy, I know we've been here for a long time now, but we've been thinking about it good and hard for a few days now and… well, we're just not sure this is the safest place for the kids, you know?" The man, someone she vaguely recognized from the garage, told Amy awkwardly when he came in, and Amy dutifully filled in the last five spaces on her form, making sure to raise her voice just enough so that Charlotte could hear her loud and clear.

"Well, that's all of the spaces gone. If anyone else wants to go then we're gonna have to start bumping people off…"

Charlotte grit her teeth and kept her head down, knowing that arguing with Amy could only make things worse. The man shifted uncomfortably until Amy shot him a cheerful grin and waved him off with a light comment. Once he'd left, Charlotte finally looked up and saw Amy watching her out of the corner of her eye. She sat back and crossed her arms and Amy mirrored her, their eyes locking for several seconds before either spoke.

"Look, Amy…why're you doing this?" Charlotte asked her, and Amy leant forward on her elbows, a sly smile on her face.

"I'm not stupid Charlotte. You guys have been here over a year – if you'd wanted to see your family you would have gone to see them a long time ago. So why are you really going?"

"What do you—"

"I can't keep you on the sub if you don't have a reason to be on it." Amy told her, gesturing to the forms in front of her, "So what is it?"

Charlotte's eyes narrowed as she finally realized that Amy had guessed there was some other reason why they were leaving – the only reason she'd threatened to kick them off the sub was to get Charlotte to admit what it was.

"I – I don't – we wanted—" She broke off, her eyes dropping to her desk as she considered for a moment before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to swallow her pride. She looked back up at Amy who was watching her eagerly. "I'm pregnant."

Amy's face lit up in a grin, and she got up and hurried over to Charlotte, pulling her friend into a hug.

"See, how hard was that?" She teased as Charlotte returned the hug stiffly, her anger not forgotten as quickly as Amy's. "Now there's no way you won't be on that sub." She promised as she returned to her desk.

"Thank God for that," Charlotte muttered under her breath, "Otherwise I may have had to kill you."

- - -

- - -

Daniel was so lost in thought as he made his way over to the admin building that he didn't hear Horace calling him until his third attempt to get his attention. He looked up to see Horace jogging over to him, a grin fixed on his face.

"Daydreaming?" He asked lightly, and Daniel laughed a little, embarrassed. "What are you doing out here, anyway? I was just going to head over to admin to find you."

Daniel jerked his head slightly back towards the infirmary.

"I had to go and get my bandages changed." He explained, and Horace pulled his glasses from his pocket.

"Can I see?" He asked, grasping one of Daniel arms before he could reply, yanking up the sleeve and letting out a whistle as he saw how much of Daniel's arm was covered with the white bandages. "Phew, that looks pretty bad." Daniel shrugged, pulled his sleeve back down; he was getting tired of everyone obsessing over what were, in his mind, pretty minor injuries.

"I don't even notice it. I think I got off…lightly, really. Hasn't stopped me helping Charlotte out with her work the last couple of days, anyway." He told him, and Horace looked at him in surprise, before nodding, impressed.

"Good man, getting back to work already. Actually, that was what I was coming to talk to you about. We've got a message from our people over at Ann Arbour, and they're looking for some new blood over there. Sometimes they recruit from the mainland, but they want people from Dharma who have a science background and you fit the bill pretty well."

Daniel was surprised; it had been less than two weeks since the accident at the Arrow and from the way Horace had spoken when he went to see him a few nights before he'd thought he wouldn't be back at work for a while. Apparently reading Daniel's mind, Horace chuckled.

"Don't worry, you still get your time off work; they don't want anyone out there for three months, not until July."

"Oh, wow, that sounds—" Daniel started, but Horace interrupted him, putting a hand up.

"There is a catch, though."

Daniel frowned.

"What?"

Horace sighed, running a hand along his temple.

"They haven't told me exactly what this thing they're running is, but I do now that they want to keep it quiet; they don't want anyone else there than the people working on their project – that means no families, no wives."

"…Oh." Daniel replied eventually.

"It's only a six month project, but if they like you they might ask you to stay on there permanently, and if that happens then they'd probably let Charlotte come out and join you. And even if they don't, you'll be back by January."

"I don't know, Horace, six months…it's a long time. Too long; I can't go away for sixth months." Daniel said after a moment.

"It's a fantastic opportunity, Daniel, you really should think about it." Horace suggested, but Daniel shook his head.

"I don't have to. Sorry, Horace – it's a great offer, but I can't take it."

- - -

- - -

"Hey." Charlotte looked up to see Daniel at the doorway. She glanced down at her watch, before glaring at him mock-seriously.

"I don't know how they ran things at the Orchid, but over here showing up at half past ten is late." She teased, putting her pen down. "Where have you been this morning?" He walked over, leaning on the edge of the desk next to her and showing her the fresh bandages on his arm.

"I had to get them changed down at the infirmary. I forgot about it until this morning, but I didn't want to wake you up. Sorry." She pushed back his sleeve and ran her thumb over the thick white bandages covering his arm.

"How's it healing?" She asked.

"Fast, the doctor said. This island's still doing a good job of getting things healed quickly."

"That's good."

"Mm. Where's Amy?" Charlotte's eyes narrowed.

"Don't get me started on her." She moaned, and he frowned.

"Something happen between you two?" Charlotte sighed heavily.

"To cut a long story short, she figured out that we weren't leaving the island to see our families, so she threatened to not let us get on the sub until I told her what our reason to go was."

Daniel was speechless for a moment, surprised by Charlotte's words.

"So did you tell her?" Charlotte nodded.

"In the end. She ran off about ten minutes ago to find Horace."

"Speaking of Horace, he came to find me just now."

"Yeah? What did he want?"

"Dharma have a science team over at Ann Arbour. Horace said that they have a new project starting in a couple of months and he was suggesting that I might be good for it." Charlotte smiled, squeezing his hand.

"That's great, Dan!"

He shook his head.

"It's six months, and it's some big, secret thing. No one's allowed there unless they're involved – which means that you couldn't come with me."

"Oh. When would you have to go?"

"July, which would mean that I wouldn't be back until January – I'd miss everything. So I'm not going." Charlotte was quite for a moment, looking at their entwined fingers.

"Are you sure?" He reached out to her hair, smiling as he ran his hand through her red curls.

"I'm sure. This, being here with you _through _all of this, is far more important than anything, Char."

She leaned over and kissed him gently, resting her fingers on his jaw.

"Well, I'm glad you're staying; none of this would be the same without you." She told him.

"Yeah?"

She leant in and kissed him again.

"Yeah."

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_AN: Again, I'm thinking of a number between 265 and 288, and if your review is that number then you win a oneshot! (, yours is coming soon, I promise!)_


	23. Chapter 23

_AN: Yay, I'm back! I'm so, so, so, __so_ _sorry it's been so long, but I have had an insane amount on recently. Still, school broke up today, so I should be able to post more frequently over the summer – except for next week, when I'm away._

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Three weeks passed quickly, and before Charlotte knew it there were only a few hours until the sub came to take them to the mainland. The first sub two weeks before had taken nearly two dozen residents from the island, so Dharmaville was already far sparser than she could ever remember it being, half of the houses lingering empty on the streets.

With everything sorted for them to leave and Daniel off somewhere taking to Horace, Charlotte had slipped down to the beach through the jungle, finally making her way to where the 815 survivors would build their camp in thirty years time. It still made her head spin to think that she hadn't even technically been born yet and wouldn't be for more than four years, and yet in seven months she'd have a child of her own, something which both terrified and excited her.

One of the things that was puzzling – and infuriating – her the most was Amy's continuing theory that Jeanette Staples was pregnant. She'd tired ignoring Amy's comments and speculations as much as possible, but a lot of what she said seemed quite plausible – and this was what worried her. As mucked up as her life seemed to be, one of the things she'd been pretty certain on was that wasn't meant to be born until 1979, and – as far as she knew – it was just her and her two sisters, who were both younger than her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching from behind her, and when she turned she saw Jin emerging from the trees.

"Daniel is looking for you." He explained, coming over to her. "I told him I would come and look here for you." He hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to her. "What are you doing?"

"Just…thinking. Before we leave."

"Are you looking forward to leaving?"

Charlotte shrugged. "Sort of. It's gonna be weird, you know? We've been here for so long… and we're not even going back to what we came from." She explained. Jin's face fell a little, and Charlotte realized how hard it must be for him to see her and Daniel go through everything he'd missed out on with Sun.

"How's everything going with your search, then?" She asked, quickly changing the subject. "How much of the island have you covered?"

"Nearly everything that we can. We only have a small area of the jungle left, but I don't think we'll find anything. Miles and I do not see the point, but LaFleur is insisting that we do the whole island apart from the Hostile area."

"He still thinks Locke's gonna turn up then?"

"I guess so."

She bumped her shoulder against his. "Well, if he turns up while we're gone you'd better wait for us, yeah?"

"Juliet doesn't think you will come back."

"Really?" Charlotte replied in surprise. Jin nodded.

"She thinks that once you get off this island you won't want to come back."

"Is that right?" Charlotte said with an amused smile. "Well don't you worry about that, Jin, we'll definitely be coming back."

"Maybe you should tell Juliet that."

"No – I think I'll let her worry." She told him; things still weren't great between her and Juliet and the idea of letting her stew for a while was more than a little tempting.

Charlotte sighed and stood up, brushing the sand from her trousers. "You know what I'm not going to miss while I'm gone?" She glanced at Jin's attire with a smirk. "The overalls. For one thing, navy _definitely _isn't my colour."

- - -

- - -

"Hello?" Charlotte called out as she opened the front door. Hearing footsteps along the upstairs landing she headed up the stairs, finding Daniel pulling out clothes from the wardrobe. When he saw her in the doorway he smiled and glanced proudly at the half full suitcase.

"I'm packed."

With a raised eyebrow Charlotte looked between the wardrobe and the suitcase. "There's no need to sound quite so smug; there wasn't exactly a huge amount to pack." She reached into her own side of the wardrobe and started throwing clothes towards the bag. "How long have we got?"

"About half an hour, maybe forty five minutes. Horace told us he'd send Amy over when the sub gets here, and it'll be about fifteen minutes after that."

Charlotte nodded, emptying the wardrobe of all the things she wanted before starting to fold the clothes into the suitcase.

"Where were you, just now? I, err, couldn't find you."

"I was down at the beach."

"What were you doing there?"

"Just thinking… about everything. Whether Locke's ever going to come back. If we're ever going to get back to when we're supposed to be." At his worried expression she shook her head. "Don't look so panicked; it wasn't as morbid as it sounds." She sat down on the bed and Daniel followed suit, sitting down next to her. "I just figured that… maybe it doesn't matter that much. I didn't exactly have too many ties back in 2004, and other than the awful overalls and whole awkward situation with Mike life here isn't exactly bad is it? Though it's not exactly like we're going to have much of a choice; it's been a year and there's been no sign of anyone. Still," she grinned, leaning against his shoulder, "I'm not even going to have time to think about any of that for a while."

Daniel wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss against her temple. "Do you sometime wonder whether this is all really happening?"

"All the time. Some it all seems so bizarre – even back as far as when we first got here, having to jump out of a bloody helicopter. Probably should've realized what we were in for then."

- - -

- - -

"You okay?"

Charlotte looked up as Daniel put a hand on her arm as she swirled the sedative around in the plastic cup in her hand. "What happens once it kicks in? They can't just leave everyone passed out in their seats." She followed his gaze to the narrow beds lined along the wall, similar to the one she'd slept in on the freighter. "But how do they get us…" She noticed an over weight, balding man in Dharma overalls hovering in the corner. "Oh. God, I haven't had to get carried to bed after passing out since back when I was at uni." She shuddered as she saw his finger reach up towards his nose, obviously oblivious to the fact that he was being watched. "Still, I never was one to turn down the opportunity to be felt up by a middle age fat bloke while I'm asleep." She added sarcastically, now eyeing the sedative drink even more warily. "Why exactly aren't we allowed to be conscious during this bloody thing?"

"Amy said that it isn't exactly what she'd call a pleasant journey once it gets going." He squeezed her arm comfortingly. "Everyone else is drinking theirs now," he told her, noticing that some of the people who were already slumped back in their chairs were being lifted into the small beds, "it's probably best to just get it over with."

Charlotte nodded and downed it in one, putting a hand to her forehead and digging her nails into the skin of Daniel's wrist.

"They really weren't kidding when they set it set in… quickly…" She muttered before collapsing against him, releasing her grip on his arm.

When Daniel saw the man in overalls making his way over he stood up quickly, setting his own cup down on his chair.

"It's fine; I've got her." He assured the man once he reached them, who merely shrugged and went to move someone else. Daniel slid one arm around Charlotte's back and the other under knees and carefully lifting her up, making sure he had proper hold of her before carrying her across the few feet between them and the nearest bed. He set her down gently and brushed her hair from her face, hesitating for a moment before deciding he probably needed to leave one of the overalls guys to do the straps hanging from the side of the bed, presumably to stop people falling from the beds.

He grabbed his own cup and sat down on the bed next to one he'd put Charlotte on, and after a last glance drank it down quickly, leaning back against the wall as the world swam and then faded to black.

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_AN: To be honest, I've been a crappy updater, so if you don't feel that I deserve reviews then fair enough. However, if you're feeling forgiving, I really do appreciate all of your comments and feedback. Anyway, no pressure. :) _


	24. Chapter 24

_**AN:**__ Right. So… eight months. Hmm. That's a very long time… sorry? I can't really make up for that, so I just hope that a few of you might still be interested in reading this. I've just been so busy with school that writing has had to take a real back seat. Sorry, again! I promise I'll try as hard as I can to update frequently until the end…there's not too many chapters left now! Anyway...enjoy the chapter. :)_

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_3 Months Later…_

As soon as Daniel came in the door, Charlotte eased herself off the couch, calling out to Dan as she stood in the lounge doorway.

"Oi! Dan, come here!" She shouted, gesturing to him as he appeared in the hallway.

"What's going on?" He asked, dropping the groceries just inside the kitchen, his eyebrows raised a little in concern, and by way of reply Charlotte held out her hand.

"Whilst you were out –" She paused, touching her stomach as she glanced down, her smile growing. "Feel it!" She took his hand and pressed it against her stomach. At first he merely looked at her, but after a second his mouth dropped open as he felt a gentle nudge against his palm.

"Wow – is that—?"

"I thought I'd felt it the other day, and then just after you went out she started going crazy!" She told him, eyes gleaming with excitement, hands folded over his.

"Whoa." Daniel breathed, his voice low, a grin spreading quickly across his face. "That's…incredible. But, hey, you've got to stop calling _it_ a _girl_. You don't know yet!"

"We'll see." she teased, laughing. "I know it's a girl." Daniel's disbelieving face just made her laugh more. "Don't believe me?"

"You _can't_ know. It's not possible!" he insisted. "You won't know until the next doctor's appointment."

"Fine. But I'm proving you wrong at that doctor's appointment." She threatened. Daniel shook his head, bemused.

"Anyway, while I remember, I checked up on the subs again, and the next one is coming in a week on Tuesday." He said, turning back towards the kitchen. "There are only a few recruits going, so there's still seats, if we want them."

"Daniel, the Doctor said he wanted me here. My blood work wasn't exactly promising." She replied quickly.

"He only said you _might_ be anemic. You've been taking those iron tablets, haven't you?"

"Of course I have." She replied crossly, folding her arms. "I just think that if anything could go wrong, surely it's better to stay here." She raised her eyebrows. "Or is it more important to get back to the Island than it is to make sure everything goes okay?"

"No, Charlotte, of course not!" He replied, apparently surprised by her reaction. "You know that's not what I was saying – I thought you _wanted _to go back?"

"You thought I _wanted_ to… why on earth would I want to go back there?"

Daniel only seemed more confused. "I thought you wanted to get to know your Dad some more." He replied carefully Charlotte sat back down on the couch, sighing as she put her head in her hands.

"I did…I do, I guess. It's just that now that I _do_ know him, I'm not exactly sure I want to be around for what happens next." She explained, leaning her head against Daniel's shoulder as he sat down next to her. "He's too…nice. I don't want to stick around and have to be there when everything starts happening."

"You mean your dad dying?" He asked gently. She shook her head.

"No – well, yes, eventually, but not now." She saw realization dawn on his face.

"Your mom being pregnant, when you're not born for another four years."

"Bingo. I listened in on enough of my mum and stepdad's conversations to know that she loses the baby pretty far into her pregnancy. That's when my parents start arguing and my mum starts getting closer to my stepdad—" She gave him a knowing look, "I'm sure you've figured out who he is by now – and the whole thing is basically the reason my mum eventually leaves this place with my stepdad rather than my dad." Seeing Daniel's confused face as he processed the information, she couldn't help but chuckle weakly. "I never said my family was normal."

"So you don't want to go back and see your parents break up?"

She shrugged. "It's just that before, I'd never really had a face to put to the name, but now I know my dad as an actual person I'd just feel bad being there and knowing exactly what's coming."

"Okay. Okay, we won't go back. But you do realize that if we never go back to the island, we won't ever get back to our right time – we'll always be stuck in the 70s."

"Because we have so much to go back to." She suggested sarcastically.

"It's not as much having anything to go back to, it's more how difficult it'll be to try and have a life here without any sort of ID – getting a decent job with no qualifications is going to be difficult and we don't have that much from Dharma. I don't know how we'll actually be able to afford this apartment without a proper income. We might be able to manage for a few months, but…"

"We're going to have to go back." She sighed. He was silent for a moment before replying.

"I'll try and find something. I know I turned down the job with Dharma in Ann Arbor, but they might have something else that I could do."

She gave him a grateful smile, squeezing his hand. "Thanks, Dan. I know I'm being silly, trying to avoid this, but—"

"Hey, come on. You don't have to explain yourself again to me." He pressed a kiss against her forehead. "I get it. And, to be completely honest…I don't want us to go back either."

"No?"

"No, not for now, anyway. You heard what Juliet said – by the time she came to the Island all the pregnant women were dying. I just don't want that to happen to you."

Charlotte laughed, wrapping her arms tightly around him and shaking her head. "Silly man." She said fondly. "That hasn't happened yet. You've seen the pregnant women on the island since we've been there and they've all been fine."

"Please. Humour me." His hand pressed against her stomach. "I only want what's best for you, and for the baby—" he hesitated, "For _her_."

She wagged her finger at him before placing her hand over his.

"I knew you'd cave."

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_**AN:**__Please forgive the cheesiness, it's been an utterly rubbish few weeks. I'll try and update quickly, __definitely__ by the end of the month. I don't expect any of you to actually review considering it's been so long, but if any of you are feeling particularly forgiving a few words of feedback would be so appreciated :)_

_(P.S Thanks for getting to 300 reviews!)_


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